What's Your Pleasure?
by The Smash Artist
Summary: Modernday New York City is threatened when a certain famous accountant and secretary unwittingly unleash the Cenobites. Will the Ghostbusters be able to neutralize this unexpected and unusual threat?
1. Chapter 1

The Ghostbusters and Hellraiser characters, themes, settings, and stories do not belong to me. They are property of Sony Pictures and New Line Cinema, respectively. I simply own the plot of the story and the tempo of the action.

Beware: This story is rated Mature for several good reasons. Mild bad language and heavy gore is present, as necessary for such a horror story. Those of you with weak constitutions should stop here. As for the rest of you, enjoy the ride.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 1**

The sun burned high above the numerous apartment buildings and added to the mild humidity typical of a hot New York afternoon. Because business had been slow lately, Janine Melnitz had gotten permission to take the afternoon off. She had decided she would go check out the trendy Soho District, with its numerous shops and street vendors selling funky merchandise. 

"Maybe I'll find myself a new chic pair of boots, or something," the Ghostbusters' secretary thought. "And Louis' birthday is tomorrow. He loves puzzles and things like that." 

She was referring to accountant Louis Tully, whom she had been dating ever since they babysat Oscar at Peter Venkman's apartment. At first the guys nearly laughed her out of the firehouse, but they eventually warmed up to the idea. And the two saw each other most everyday at work. Louis worked part time for the Ghostbusters. 

"Excuse me lady," chirped an uncommon street vendor. "We just got this beautiful item in yesterday." 

The vendor was dressed quite uniquely for a street merchant. He wore an image that looked quite like something out of 1001 Arabian Nights with a bright green turban and strange pale blue eyes. A large blue silk curtain blocked the inventory on three and one-third sides leaving the observer only a small window through which to peek. 

Janine Melnitz gave her attention to the unusual salesman and the strange object he held. It was a beautiful brass and dark-hazelwood cornucopia of curves and angles that seemed to feature a different strange pattern on each of the six sides of the cube. The strangest feature of the box was the uppermost face--it was a lace pattern that encircled what looked like a large button with four tiny arrows pointing inward.

"What's your pleasure?" the man quipped. "Legend has it that this box can make it all possible. It's known as the Lament Configuration, but it will bring you nothing but ecstasy."

"Looks like a fancy Rubik's Cube to me," retorted Janine in her thick Brooklyn accent. Still Louis really liked things like this. "Would it make a decent puzzle for a brainiac?"

"Naturally! That is its primary function. Anyone who touches this toy will spend hours trying to figure it out," continued the merchant. "It's on sale today for only ten dollars!"

Janine had very little disposable income right now, she wasn't going home without a new pair of boots, and her stomach was beginning to growl.

"I'll take it," she said, after window-shopping the rest of the man's inventory and being unimpressed. "That box will make a great birthday gift for my friend."

"Excellent!" said the vendor. "By the way, let me tell you a secret. If your friend solves the Lament Configuration he'll be in a very exclusive category and he'll have a special surprise coming to him."

The slightly sinister tone of those words rang in her head the rest of the afternoon.

The following evening would fulfill the strange merchant's haunting words. Janine Melnitz had just finished putting the final touches on the romantic candlelight dinner she had planned for the two of them. She knew it would still be a half-hour before Louis arrived for dinner, but she could hardly wait. Earlier in the day the guys had thrown a birthday party for him at the firehouse, complete with streamers and balloons and a peanut butter chocolate ice cream cake. She figured this would be the perfect end to his perfect birthday.

_Oh shoot; I forgot to wrap his gift! Well the rest of this can wait._  
Janine hurried into her bedroom and retrieved the wrapping paper and the Lament Configuration. She began to wrap the little puzzle box hurriedly, but found herself stopping from time to time just to stare at it. She felt strangely drawn to it and had a strong desire to play with it herself. A doorbell chime snapped her out of her fascination.

"I ran out of time!"

Janine shoved the box and the wrapping paper behind her couch and opened the door. She welcomed Louis in with a tender kiss and they sat down to a candlelight dinner of fettuccine Alfredo. After dinner she ran to the couch and grabbed the box.

"Happy Birthday, Louis! I found it in the Soho District. The vendor said you would enjoy this for hours on end. It's a puzzle box that only a few have solved," said Janine.

"Wow! That's neat! How does it work?" exclaimed Louis.

"I'm not quite sure. Why don't you try it out? Here, let me help you. We can solve it together," replied Janine.

They began to work on the strange toy and became quite surprised when the pieces began to shift. Eventually the sides began moving on their own, shifting and turning until the cube changed into an entirely new shape. Then a massive earthquake hit and a wall began to shift open. However, it led to a strange dark stone corridor instead of into her bedroom where it should have led.

"I don't remember any secret passages in this building," Louis and Janine exclaimed together.

Then they emerged. The first had clothes sewn into its flesh and it had hooks that transfixed the flaps of its eyes and were wed, by an intricate system of chains passed through flesh and bone alike, to similar hooks through the lower lip. Its ears were missing, making its head look something like a raw turkey. The second had features so heavily distorted that its eyes were invisible and its words corrupted by the disfigurement of its mouth. Its teeth chattered endlessly. The third was gray yet gleaming, her lips bloody, her legs parted so that the elaborate mutilation of her pubis was displayed. The fourth had a voice that was light and breathy. Every inch of his head had been tattooed with an intricate grid, and at every intersection of horizontal and vertical axes a jeweled pin driven through to the bone. His tongue was similarly patterned. Then he spoke: "Who summoned us here and unleashed hell upon earth again?"

Janine and Louis simultaneously screamed and bolted for the front door, hand in hand. Before Janine was able to make it out the door a demonic creature grabbed her away from him. 

"Janine!" screamed Louis in a panic. As she was torn from Louis' grip and brought face to face with the fourth being, Janine found herself screaming. 

"Silence, wench. We are the Cenobites. It was you and that weakling who released us. For that we should show you both the pleasures of Hell. But we have something better in store. Twice before we have been released and banished. It will not happen again," snarled the Fourth. 

"W-who are you?" whimpered Janine.

"I am Pinhead, and this world will soon go to Hell." He turned to the second. "Take her back and let her live long enough to watch everything she knows turn to chaos. Then give her the rich sufferings we have in store for her. I'll find the other one."

Her screams echoed off the walls as the horrible Cenobite dragged her down the dark damp corridor.

Louis ran as fast as he could and arrived at Ray's Occult bookshop out of breath. Dr. Ray Stantz was in the process of shelving new arrivals, and was a little surprised to see his accountant in such a manner.

"Ray... these strange... creatures took Ja--nine... and... after me..." gasped a shaken Louis Tully.

"Louis, pull it together," said Ray. "Slowly tell me what happened."

Louis recalled to Dr. Stantz the horrible events as best he could and was just about to finish when the south wall of the bookshop blew out. The severed head and arms of some poor New Yorker landed at Louis' feet. The remaining three Cenobites had tracked the accountant. 

"Well don't just stand there, Louis," exclaimed Ray. "Let's make like trees and leave!"

But the Cenobites had blocked the exits, leaving the only way out past them. Ray pulled out the PKE meter he kept underneath the front counter and powered it up before he motioned to Louis.

"Come on. I have a plan," whispered Ray. "We'll confuse them in the maze of books, round them up in front of a bookshelf, and then let 'em have it."

Ray and Louis climbed into plain sight and began taunting them.  
"Hey Chompers, over here. You'll never catch me you one-man freak show!" teased Ray.

"Hey Pinhead, uh...your taxes are probably late!" tried Louis. 

Nevertheless it worked and the Cenobites began chasing the Ghostbuster and the accountant around the maze of bookshelves. Finally they ran the disgusting demons in front of the same bookshelf and tipped it over on them.

"You foolish mortals really don't think you'll get away forever do you?!" shouted Pinhead from underneath the fallen shelf.

But by then, Louis and Ray were on their way out through the fallen south wall. They got in his car and sped off for the firehouse.

"My bookstore..." groaned Ray, as the car peeled out.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 2 

The hallway resembled a dungeon from the Dark Ages... What little of it Janine could see anyway. It was nearly pitch-dark, extremely humid, and the acrid stench of tissue decay hung in the air. The female cenobite seemed to know where to go on instinct. Every once in a while they would pass small slices of light. Then the terrified secretary could make out murals on the wall of all sorts of nasty stone carvings. Incubi, succubae, horrible torture scenes; it was all there. The hell bound artwork, the darkness, and the screaming laments that seemed simultaneously painful and hopeless made Janine wonder if she would ever see the sun or her friends again.

As the grisly demon dragged Janine through an open corridor, she could see in the distance in the air a gigantic diamond with the same mystical pattern as the box. There seemed to be purple light emanating from both sides of the prism, as if powering the horrible dimension like a battery. Beneath, Janine spied some demons sanding the skin off some poor soul--while he was alive and screaming. She immediately had to look away; she feared that the same fate awaited her around the next corner.

Pretty soon they came into the area with the prison cells. Again, it was dark, wet, and smelly, only this time the light slivers were bright red and seemed to emanate from above each prisoner. Some of them would poke their heads out from between the bars and scream or roar at her. Many of them were tattooed with numerous deep cuts, or in some cases, were missing certain organs via festering bloody wounds.

_Great. There go eight-hundred dollars' worth of shrink visits_, thought Janine to herself.

Soon she passed a cell in which the prisoner startled her. She recognized him from stories that the Ghostbusters had told her. The long cream-colored hair draped evenly on the shoulders. The sunken red eyes paid her just a glance. The rat-like ears didn't even respond. Granted, where once stood the body of a proud, brutal warrior was now a shriveled old man. But the medieval attire and wide forehead were unmistakable. Vigo von Homburg, the demonic Carpathian wizard, was in Hell.

Then the ugly cenobite suddenly stopped, and opened up an empty cell. With unnatural strength she proceeded to tie Janine to this strange looking throne. It had many of the same patterns as the awful murals on the walls. However, it had metal straps to hold her down: one across the neck, two per arm, and a full chastity belt around the waist. The cenobite rather violently tied her down in these things and positioned a monitor enveloped in brain matter in front of her, and elongated metallic cutting devices directly above her head. Fortunately they weren't spinning or advancing on her position, but she figured that sooner or later they would be. Since the monitor was a fair distance from her face, Janine had a chance to watch what the evil magician was doing through the gaps between bars on the cell door.

Scattered around Vigo were various magical artifacts, bloody animal bones, skins and organs, and framed pictures of a WWI British military officer, a strange robed lady, a zoot-suited wiseguy from what Janine guessed were the 1930s, and a Celtic sage. The pictures were all attached to a candelabrum, with each candle lit. He also had this book, from which he was chanting, "Ia Ia Ia Ia Sakkakth! Iak Sakkakh! Ia Shia Xul..." Every so often the ancient dusty tome would levitate in a circle and the candles would flare up. Vigo looked like a man possessed; like a mad scientist about to unveil his greatest experiment...

…

With an ear-splitting screech Ray's car pulled up in front of the firehouse. Louis and Ray busted out of the small red Civic and nearly tore off the firehouse doors trying to enter. Dr. Peter Venkman was in his pseudo-office rearranging his desk and was the first to hear the two agitated men.

"What's the matter?" asked Venkman. "Did you accidentally set the bookstore on fire again?"

Ray seemed to rapid-fire the words right out of his mouth: "No, Pete, it's a lot worse than that. Strange demons came and they took Janine and demolished my bookstore and nearly got Louis!! Some of the strangest PKE readings I ever saw came from them! They were all ugly and bloody and mutilated and not like the normal run-of-the-mill spooks..."

Peter responded: "Ray, just slow down. Now are those weird creatures..."

"Cenobites," corrected Louis.

"Ceno-what?" came a voice from the stairs. Dr. Egon Spengler had overheard the conversation.

"Okay," retried Peter. "These Cenobites kidnapped Janine. Where did they take her?"

"Down a long dark hallway that opened up right in the middle of her apartment," exclaimed Louis. "She bought me this neat-looking puzzle box for my birthday and we tried working with it after dinner. Pretty soon it started to move on its own and it locked into a diamond-shaped pattern. That's when the wall opened up and the Cenobites took her."

"Ray, can you tell us anything else about it?" asked Peter.

"Well, I was just about to shelve a new edition of Magicians, Martyrs, and Madmen when Louis came charging into the shop completely out of breath. Not long after, the outside wall blew open and two of those Cenobites came to try to get him. Thankfully there were no other people in my shop at the time..."

"There's a shocker," retorted Peter.

"...I grabbed the PKE meter from underneath the counter and powered it up. We were able to confuse them and bury them in books long enough to get away. They seemed hell-bent on capturing Louis and didn't pay much attention to me at all. That's probably why the escape plan worked."

"Why don't we examine the meter's readings," stated Egon.

They all gathered around the small black instrument as Ray retrieved the data.

"As you can see, the readings are almost negative," stated Ray, pointing at the small screen. "According to the meter, they oughta' be rocks for as low an ectopresence as they emit. But the meter also indicated an outlined presence of nearly infinite strength."

"Like they're there and they're not at the same time?" inquired Louis.

"Or maybe they just summon their power when they really need it," remarked Peter.

"That's what I was thinking," said Ray. "Any thoughts, Spengs?"

"Only a question. Where is this puzzle box now?"

"Still back at the apartment," answered Louis. "I was too busy trying to avoid those freaky creatures to worry about it. Chances are they're still after me."

"And they found you before at my bookshop despite its being over two miles away. So they could probably locate you here," connected Ray.

"That would be extraordinarily bad," stated Egon flatly.

They were too busy analyzing and brooding over the meter's odd output to hear someone enter through the firehouse doors. "Guys, I'm back. What's up?" chirped Winston Zeddemore, their fellow Ghostbuster.

"Yaaaah! Don't scare us like that!" shouted all in unison.

"Now I know something's up," said Winston.

"Well, Janine's been kidnapped by ugly demons from another dimension, Ray's bookshop is in total ruin, the meter's collected the strangest readings we've ever encountered, and those beasts are probably on the way here for Louis. Aside from that, things are hunky-dory," deadpanned Peter.

"I'm going to go check in Spates Catalog and Tobin's Spirit Guide," said Egon.

"Good idea," joined Ray. "Then we can go back to my ruined bookshop and see what we can dig up there. Pete, you and Winston suit up, take Ecto over to Janine's apartment and see if you can find that box."

"And I thought we were going to stay here and play Beefeater for Louis," smarted Peter.

"Take him with you," called Ray from the stairs.

"Beefeater?" asked Winston.

"Nickname for English tower guards during the Renaissance Period," shouted Ray. Just then the telephone rang and was picked up by the computerized answering service and put on speakerphone.

"Help us, Ghostbusters!! We're over here at The World entertainment complex and there are these weird...OH MY GOD!! They just tore out his brain!! Get over here NOW!! The address is 12534...Oh shit; they're coming this way...uh, Restaurant Row, building number--"

The call went dead and was replaced by dial tone. The office computer printed out as much information as it had gathered. Shortly thereafter the fire bell rang.

"Looks like playing detective will have to wait," remarked Peter to Winston as Ray and Egon slid down the fire pole.

Thousands of miles away, in Pomona, California, John Merchant snapped awake from a restless afternoon nap. "I've got to get to New York right away," thought John.

At Vineland Home for Girls in New Jersey, as the girls were sitting down to dinner, Kirsty Cotton suddenly started screaming.

Ecto-1 peeled out of the firehouse on the way to The World, sirens blaring.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 3 

Janine kept watching as Vigo worked his evil magic in that dim smelly cell. "Ia Ia Ia Utukku Xul! Ia! Ia Zixul Ia Zixul..." He continued to chant for what seemed like an eternity to Janine, who was still worried about her awaiting fate. She was quite surprised when he stopped and summoned for his attendants. _But I thought he was a prisoner just like the rest of them, _pondered Janine in her head. Like drones, two skinless former humans dragged in another freshly skinned former human. However, this one still had life and was struggling to get free and yelling for help. They wrestled him onto what looked like an operating table and locked him facedown into some kind of head brace. Positioned above him was a gigantic metal skull that resembled those on Vigo's breastplate. Then the eyes of the skeleton emitted two neon-red beams of light that searched the area before locking their position onto his neck just below the hairline.

What followed horrified the secretary to no end. Out of the skull's mouth emerged a long stainless steel rod with a very long, sharp needle on the end that contained a glowing green crystal. This needle started spinning toward the conscious fellow, who was desperately trying to wiggle out of the metal head brace. With a ghastly whine the needle pulsated toward the position outlined by the crimson lights. The poor victim struggled harder when he felt the sudden sting of the speeding, spinning needle. Janine had to turn her head away as she heard the poor wretch's tortured screaming, the high-pitched needle whine, and the soggy squish of metal boring through bloody flesh and raw bone. She then heard Vigo roar with approval. She thought: _if that awful butcher regains free reign in our world, God help us all._

…

"This isn't good, Ray. I'm not finding anything in the Spates Database either," stated Egon. "Usually Tobin's or Spates has references on all varieties of spook, ghoul, monster, or demon, but nothing for Cenobites," the bespectacled parapsychologist said from the passenger seat of Ecto-1. He had grabbed his laptop at the last minute before they left and was trying to research the creatures on the way to The World Entertainment Complex.

"Well, have you tried 'Pinhead' or 'Hell's Cenobites' on that thing?" asked Peter. "They've gotta be in there."

"I've tried everything."

"Well if your system is as slow as this traffic, it's no wonder you're not finding anything," said Ray. "This is ridiculous. It's almost as if the cars have been abandoned or something."

Peter and Winston worriedly exchanged glances.

"Man, the cars up here areall abandoned," said Winston. "How close are we to The World, anyway?"

"According to Ecto's navigation system, we're about six blocks northeast. Boys, it looks like we're walking from here," said Ray.

The four boys in gray got out, got their proton packs and ghost traps, and marched toward The World. "I just hope this call doesn't involve any tall buildings with broken elevators," quipped Peter.

"Or terror dogs," chimed in Louis. The Ghostbusters had brought him along with them for his safety.

"Say, has anyone else noticed the sky beginning to turn a purple color?" asked Ray of the others.

"Yes, that often happens during sunset," stated Egon.

"But sunset was a half-hour ago. On a clear night like this, there should be nothing but midnight blue…" continued Ray.

They continued to explore the strangely silent avenues on their journey to The World. Nearby some of the abandoned cars, there were trails of shiny fluid away from the cars in various directions, unidentifiable in the low light. Ray reached down and ran a gloved finger through a trail of stuff and ran it under his nose. "Human blood," he said apprehensively.

"Something tells me we're in for a nightmare," said Winston. "Be very careful guys."

The closer they came to their destination, the eerier the sights became. Pools of gore and various articles of clothing littered the damp streets in chaotic piles near Times Square.

"Anything on the meter, yet, Ray?" asked Peter.

"There seem to be presences near the building itself, but nothing to match the energy signatures from the bookstore," said Ray. "So he's likely been here and either found or not found what he's after."

"Hopefully the latter as opposed to the former," Egon said. Winston shuddered at the thought.

Finally arriving at The World, where should have been lively commotion only dead silence remained. Nothing moved for blocks in either direction. Crimson streaks of blood stained their still surroundings. Bits of scattered debris were strewn out here and there, as a wind from the east flew through the hollow shells of abandoned automobiles and endless rows of mammoth buildings, making them howl through the still night.

"Well, here goes nothing," said Ray.

The four Ghostbusters charged up their particle throwers and entered the decimated front doorway. They found themselves in near-darkness, with only a few untouched lights flickering revealing more crimson stains. They stepped carefully around the fallen bodies and avoided the smashed decorations, noticing the holey walls. The eerie silence was unnerving to the exterminators, who were used to noisy ghosts and busy crowds of people. But they usually arrived before it was too late. The loud pounding of a falling door startled the four a little and they all nearly blasted fresh holes in the wall.

"Lucy, I'm home!" joked Peter in a half-whisper. The other guys glared at him.

The sound gave way to a distant scuffling of feet and thumping on walls that seemed to resonate from behind large set of locked double doors that led into building's main dining area.

"I'm picking up residual traces of that incredible energy signature from your bookshop," whispered Egon. "That entity--Pinhead--was here not long ago."

"Figured as much. What about those other paranormal energies?" whispered Ray, watching his own PKE Meter.

"They're very similar in that they've got that powerful emptiness, but are nowhere near as powerful as those of Pinhead or the other Cenobites," replied Egon quietly.

"I just thought of something. What makes you think our throwers will even work on whatever it is we find in there?" asked Peter quietly.

"He's right. We have no evidence that the beams can even stop those demons," said Winston quietly.

"And it doesn't look like anyone's left to pay you guys either," whispered Louis.

The guys proceeded into the complex. Just then, the banging on these doors intensified to the point that the structure bowed. The pounding on this door was much more intense than that on the unseen door. The creatures were trying to break down the door, which was looking rather flimsy now. It was only a matter of time before the door gave way.

"Looks like we're going to find out real quick whether or not our throwers work," said Ray.  
"Let's go at a low setting first. If these creatures are physical in nature, we don't want to have to dodge proton backwash."

"Or unstable nuclear particles of atomized monsters," added Egon.

The doors broke and hit the floor with an earth-shaking crash. The guys exchanged reluctant glances. There were six forms that spied the Ghostbusters and came after them. The first was a former nightclub emcee with a series of compact discs laced through his head like an awful sewing project. The second was an ex-young woman with knives and forks sticking out of her bust in a pentagram pattern. She had a purse full of knives and forks. The third was a very large ex-bouncer a beard and shards of glass stuck in his chest and spine. He also had a large bloody incision revealing his stomach and intestines, in which there were also glass shards. The fourth was a teenage boy completely lacking skin. He seemed to slither and writhe rather than walk. The fifth was a former waitress with alcohol bottles rammed deep into every orifice sans her mouth. The sixth was a large, muscle-bound former man who had his head split even from the top so that his brain was exposed by a crimson perimeter. Ray recognized him as the wrestler known as The Smash Artist. At least he was. This creature had utility knife blades sticking out its fingertips.

The disc-monster threw a sharp compact disc at Peter, who fired and split it into pieces, then turned his beam on the hurler. The creature writhed in pain but kept advancing. The bottled-waitress spat acid at Egon, who dodged and fired at her. Winston immediately blasted the demon-wrestler. Pretty soon, there was total chaos. The paranormal paratroopers were wildly firing proton beams in the general direction of these creatures and dodging frequent knife blades, acid streams, compact discs, and flatware. The whole room was engulfed in a chaotic air show of orange beams and small objects. The Ghostbusters just were not doing much damage. The creatures were pretty good at keeping the four men constantly in motion and unable to aim very well. The creatures kept advancing, the guys retreating. They tried altering the settings on their throwers several times to no effect. Louis, in the mean time, was trying to avoid the chaos. He was moving behind fallen tables and other objects he could use as shielding. On one of these occasions he noticed a faint red light from within an open wound of one of the awful monsters.

"Hey Ray, over here," motioned Louis. "I don't know if it will help, but maybe their glowing red wounds mean something."

At this point Ray was out of options and called for the guys to fire at the wounds. When the ex-wrestler's wound was hit, he melted like cheese on a hot plate. The overpowering stink of melting tissue and bodily fluid made the guys scramble for bits of napkin strewn along the restaurant floor.

"Uugghh," gagged Winston, "That's worse than the time I fell into that pool of slime when we caught those ghost skunks."

"Don't remind me, Zedde." choked Peter. "Like a limburger convention."

Wearing their makeshift masks, the guys took down the creatures one by one. Soon there were two left, the skinless teenager and the disc-thrower. They had no glowing wounds. These creatures began trying to attack the proton packs.

"Now they're trying to wreck our guns!! They play no fair!" smarted Peter. He dodged, narrowly avoiding a blow to the pack from the skinless teenager.

"Egon, did you bring that new weapon you were testing?" asked Ray.

"New weapon?" shouted Peter and Winston at the same time.

"It's called a Proton Concussion Grenade. It theoretically acts toward the ethereal like a standard grenade to the corporeal. But... it's still being tested. I cannot keep it from destroying physical beings, and the entity hanging around the firehouse refuses to be a test subject," said Egon, backing rapidly away from the advancing emcee monster.

"Well do you have it with you?" asked Winston.

"One of them; it is right here..." Egon accidentally fumbled the weapon, which rolled across the room right at the feet of the disc-thrower. The disgusting creature picked it up, activated it and prepared to throw it at the four concerned exterminators with a huge sinister grin. The grenade exploded immediately in the creature's hand. Compact discs shot in all directions and the creature dropped like a lead pipe, convulsing with proton backwash, and died on the spot. The guys dived behind fallen tables and the bar to avoid impaling. Many of those compact discs landed in the skinless teenager, who then took one look at himself in a fallen cracked mirror and ran whimpering out the door.

"That was the other problem," said Egon. "The grenade will not hold a fuse longer than a tenth of a second."

Peter, Ray, and Winston all laughed in relief.

"I guess he had one hell of an explosive temper!" quipped Peter.

Egon again scanned the area with his PKE Meter. This time the device registered no paranormal energy signatures. The tired Ghostbusters headed out the main entrance of the decimated entertainment complex and marched the six blocks back to Ecto-1. They piled into the converted emergency vehicle ready to head home only to find themselves swamped with messages on their car's CB from the firehouse answering service. The list of calls numbered near one hundred.

"It's going to be a long night," said Winston with a groan.

The rest of the night saw the Ghostbusters racing to each call only to find more hideous Cenobite creations and no people anywhere. They came across several former cops who had been violently and viscerally inducted into the demonic ranks. Fatigue was beginning to set in, and by the fifteenth assignment, all four men were ready to quit on the spot. They had never had a night like this before. Worse, they likely would not be paid for any of it.

…

John Merchant sat restlessly on United Airlines flight 420 to New York. It would still be three hours before he got to the Big Apple. He tried to read but could not concentrate very long. He decided to go to the restroom to wash his face and try to calm his nerves.  
_I just hope Pinhead and his cronies have chosen to pursue only those who used the Lament Configuration. But this nagging feeling tells me that he has another agenda altogether,_ said Merchant to his reflection in the facility's mirror. _Hopefully no one's trying to get in his way. I doubt there is a force on earth capable of defeating the Cenobites. _

…

At Vineland Home for Girls, Kirsty Cotton was sitting in the head nurse's station with a downtrodden look on her face. Martha Crabbe, the head nurse of the institution, was grilling her like a military sergeant.

"Kirsty, you know better than to make outbursts like that! Are you trying to scare the other girls? You know how many of them are traumatized easily. Now tell me just why you panicked like that during our evening meal."

"I can't." forlornly whispered Kirsty. "I just have this feeling..."

"It was a little more than a feeling," said Nurse Crabbe, injecting compassion into her voice. "I understand what you've been through, dear. The pain of losing your family is very difficult to overcome. But the bad man is gone. Your uncle Frank is gone, child. He's not coming back."

"But he's not the one I felt... It was... Pinhead..." Kirsty started sobbing. "He... he's here."

"Now Kirsty, didn't we determine Pinhead to be a figment of your subconscious mind?" said Nurse Crabbe, putting an arm around the distraught young woman. "Remember, it was your psyche giving a face to the horror and grief caused by your uncle Frank."

"No, it wasn't! Pinhead came after me twice!!! I was in hell! Pinhead and the Cenobites are real and they're back in our world again..."

"Ssh, child," comforted Nurse Crabbe, embracing the disturbed young woman. "Maybe if you eat something and go straight to bed, you'll feel better in the morning."

Kirsty knew that she was powerless to do anything else, so she submitted and took Nurse Crabbe's advice. Moreover, she began to wonder if she had dreamed up the Cenobites to reconcile what had happened in her mind and soul. Through the past two years, Nurse Crabbe and the facility psychologists had all but proven to her that there was no possible way for Hell to open up, if there even was a Hell. And they had taken extraordinarily good care of her physical and psychological self. Maybe they were right.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 4**

"We can't keep running around like this. We're tired as hell, we're not getting anywhere, and the calls just keep coming," said Ray to the other three Ghostbusters as they emerged from the wrecked entrance of the Shattner Apartment Complex in midtown Manhattan. 

"Maybe if we could figure out in what direction Pinhead and his cronies have gone, we could figure out where he's trying to go and beat him there," suggested Winston.

"Good idea. We can retrace all our calls using my laptop and Ecto's CB," said Egon.

"In any case, let's head home and try to get a few winks," suggested Peter. "Rest will do this 'Buster some good."

"You said it, man," commented Winston.

On the way back to the firehouse, Egon hooked up his computer to the ambulance's CB and began reconstructing the path of the places they'd been during the evening as well as the addresses of the unanswered calls. The guys were quite startled to discover a path leading to New Jersey. 

"Jersey? What does that freak with the dangerous acne want in Jersey?" asked Ray.

"Maybe he just wants to go home. Jersey's close enough to Hell, right?" quipped Peter.

"That's not funny, Venkman. Pinhead's path seems distinct, and I would wager that he becomes more powerful with each victim," replied Egon.

"Would it have something to do with any work you did while we were out of business?" asked Winston.

"I don't think it---A HA! I remember!" shot Egon. "During the few years when Ghostbusters disbanded, I found work as a practicing psychologist with Newark University and got an assignment at a local mental hospital on Long Island. There was one patient who told me a fantastic story about her psychopathic uncle. He was tried by a jury and executed. But he found a certain item and was able to come back from, Hell, I think she said."

"Did she tell you what the item was?" asked Ray, lighting up a cigarette.

"No, she didn't want to tell me. I didn't harass her about it. This Uncle Frank did not come back alone. He brought strange creatures with him that had an insatiable desire for suffering. 'The leader was ugly and had nails in his head' she told me. Over the three months she was in my care, she disclosed the rest of the story consisting of how Frank came back skinless and killed her father for his skin. She was able to trick the monsters into finding him and afterward she promptly closed the gateway," recalled Egon.

"I think we can guess what that item was," said Peter. "So where is she?"

Back at the firehouse, the Ghostbusters all caught a little blessed shut-eye. Afterward, they gathered around the large amber worktable in Egon's lab and formulated a strategy.

"Egon, Winston, you guys take Ecto-1 down to the Vineland Home for Girls and see if you can get Kirsty before Pinhead does. Ray and I will take his car and try to answer as many of the remaining calls as possible," said Peter.

A loud knocking on the iron doors of the firehouse interrupted their preparations. Ray and Peter dashed down the building's stairs to the main floor vehicle bay and their lockers. They swiftly retrieved their proton packs and aimed at the large iron doors. What if the Cenobite creations had sensed the supernatural energy within the containment unit and had come to feast? The guys were definitely not prepared for an army of the unearthly beings. Ray and Peter cautiously approached an iron door and opened it. Instead of an army of ugly freaks, there was just one man with a concerned look on his face.

"Ghostbusters? A security officer at the airport said that if anyone knew what was going on with monsters or demons it would most likely be you guys. My name is John Merchant and I can tell you what's going on if you'll listen. Things are very bad, and they're going to get worse unless I tell you what's happening!"

With strong cups of coffee the five men sat down around the cheap dining table in their second-story kitchen and listened intently as John began his fantastic story.

"Several generations ago, during the days of the French Revolution, there was a poor and lowly toy maker named Philippe LeMarchand. A wealthy aristocrat named Duleille, a man obsessed with black magic, commissioned Philippe to create a puzzle box unlike any other. Philippe was reluctant to begin upon reading the sinister instructions of the eccentric aristocrat concerning the toy. Still Philippe and his wife were almost penniless and working for a member of the aristocracy almost certainly meant wealth and recognition. And his wife was pregnant. There was little choice. He worked almost around the clock to complete the puzzle box, which he aptly named the Lament Configuration. He had no idea that the innocent little box of his had the power to open the doors to an otherworldly region and unleash demons with insatiable desires for suffering and chaos."

"The Cenobites, right?" asked Peter.

"So you've encountered them?" replied John.

"Louis and I managed to escape from them once already," stated Ray. We've dubbed their leader 'Pinhead' because of the nails sticking out of his pale cranium."

"Count yourselves lucky," responded John. "Very few live through their encounter with the Cenobites. Even fewer remain sane enough to tell about it."

"Our secretary Janine has been captured by the Cenobites and, as far as we know, is already in Hell," said Egon flatly, with only the faintest hint of dread.

"Not Hell... Labyrinth," corrected John. He drew blank stares from the four parapsychologists. "Labyrinth is a part of Hell, but it's a lot more chaotic, the tortures are beyond the worst physical abominations ever devised, and there is a way to open it into our world. Think of it this way: do you know anyone with a deformed limb? It is almost like Hell has a gimpy leg and Labyrinth _is_ that gimpy leg. If the gateway stays open for more than two days, our world will begin to resemble Labyrinth and the creatures that live there will come here."

"I don't think people would like having their deformed legs called gimpy," said Winston. "But we get the idea."

"Upon delivery Philippe noticed strange otherworldly lights from within the Duleille Estate and looked in through a manor window to see a ritual of blood and pain, with his prized creation at the center of it all. He was particularly alarmed after watching an empty pink shell of skin – formerly belonging to a girl the mansion lord had killed in his kitchen - fill from within to become a beautiful brunette with crimson lips. Curious about what he'd seen, Philippe entered the mansion to investigate and never came out. Still, word of the wondrous Lament Configuration spread throughout Europe and soon everyone was contacting Philippe's widow for one. Stranger still, that same striking brunette, Angelique, came calling and offered to support her until her baby boy was grown up, provided that he would resume his late father's work. The widow had shadowed her late husband on his delivery and also witnessed some of the strange sights, and Philippe's death, from another mansion window. She recognized Angelique, but faced destitution and the wrath of the mysterious woman unless she agreed.

"The deal was made and when Stephan grew up, the young man fulfilled his familial obligation by making several copies of the Lament Configuration. Unlike his father, Stephan was poor at toy making, and most of the copies turned out useless. An enraged Angelique came back to the LeMarchand household while Stephan was away. He returned to find his lifeless mother completely skinless and a death note written across the kitchen wall in her blood. Terrified and grief-stricken, Stephan left his home in the middle of the night. He fled to England, was granted amnesty, and changed his family name to 'Merchant' in hopes of hiding from Angelique."

Peter, Ray, and Winston were staring at him, completely enthralled by his story. Egon was typing like a madman on his laptop, gathering every last detail. John continued:

"Stephan was a forefather of mine. The story I just told you began to be regarded as a fairy tale as the generations progressed. Yet there were ilk that dreamed of puzzle boxes and of doors to Hell. The dreams were more like impossible memories, like the Merchant blood was forever linked to that one event, and therefore cursed. I've had many such dreams. I have had very sexual encounters in my dreams with Angelique."

"But what does she have to do with Pinhead and the Cenobites?" asked Ray.

"Well, some of my elder kin have given me details about Angelique. She was a raven-haired beauty that loved to use seduction. She preferred the lingering mind-scarring pain of sexual betrayal. Contrast that with Pinhead, who is said to love the instant raw suffering of physical torture. It has been said that sometimes they are allies, sometimes enemies. Both seem to have the same ultimate goal of permanent relocation to our world. At times, both have been regarded as mere puppets of some greater evil. They seem to have certain rules that govern their actions."

"Where does that Pinhead dude come from, anyway?" asked Winston.

"I wonder that myself. All I know is that he seems to be the lead Cenobite."

"Does the name Kirsty Cotton mean anything to you? We think Pinhead's after her," said Peter.

"Dr. Spengler here can tell you all about her whacked-out encounters with that freak."

"Hmm. The legend says that in order for the puppet to gain control of his own strings he must kill both the opener and the closer before he takes his victims back to Hell," informed John. "I am the 'opener' as LeMarchand's descendant, and so she must be the 'closer.' And I hope whoever opened the box has found a good hiding spot--"

"Come to think of it," interrupted Ray, "Louis hasn't been with us since earlier this evening. He's our accountant and one of the people who opened the box. I just don't know how we could have lost track of him!"

"It's been a long night, Ray. We're all exhausted. He's probably found a good hiding spot somewhere," reassured Peter.

"So by attacking all those locations, I'll bet Pinhead's trying to build an invasion force," considered Winston. "We've been busy all night long cleaning up Pinhead's messes and destroying his creations with our weapons."

"I wouldn't put it past him," replied John. "He's done it before."

"If we should meet up with that freakish Pinhead or his closest minions, will our weaponry work on him?" asked Egon. "We have thus far encountered great difficulty dispatching his creations."

"No they won't. But my blood might. Until Pinhead has killed both Kirsty and I, my blood should be able to cripple him and his forces," replied John. "But I don't think you can get enough of it to do a lot of damage."

"Not alone, but we have these packs called Slime Blowers that spurt positively charged slime that will stun pure evil if connects with it. If we took a small vial of your blood and mixed it in with the slime, we might be able to create a weapon that could cripple the Cenobites," stated Ray.

"One more thing. What about the Lament Configuration?" asked John. 

"We suspect that Pinhead has it. It was accidentally left at the scene of the disturbance when Louis and Janine attempted to escape," said Egon.

"Oh, great..." moaned John, "If he finds the other one and combines them, we won't be able to close the gate."

"You mean there're two?" asked Ray. "If we can find the other one before he does, he'll be led right to us!"

At that remark, everyone in the room gave Ray the evil eye. He shrank back sheepishly.

"Okay, here's the game plan, guys," said Peter. "Egon, you and Winston mix a batch of that blood-slime for the Blowers, take Ecto, and get to Vineland Home for Girls. Ray and I will suit up with the Packs and take his Civic back to Janine's Apartment to see what we can find there. It's clobberin' time!"


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 5 

Doctors Peter Venkman and Ray Stantz pulled up at the now-abandoned apartment building in the red Honda Civic. The whole area was one big scene of chaos and destruction. Cars were smashed. Walls had been blown out. Trees and shrubs had been uprooted. Areas of concrete had been cracked and pulled up. There were bloodstains everywhere. An eerie silence pervaded the whole area. Eerier still, there were no police cars anywhere near the silent, violent wreckage.

"Kinda' reminds you of when we scaled that midtown high-rise to fight Gozer," claimed Ray.

"Yeah, except there were no uprooted trees, there were still people around, and there was no blood and no stench of death. Come to think of it, it's NOTHING LIKE THAT!!!" shot Peter.

This prompted Ray to look at him rather sheepishly, as they pulled their gear out of the back of the red Civic.

"You know, I don't believe for a minute what you said back at the firehouse," commented Ray, lighting up a cigarette. "The ease with which the Cenobites tracked Louis to my bookstore…"

"Yeah, it was total bullshit," admitted Peter.

"So if they have him, maybe they've been here already to take him back to Labyrinth. And supposedly the entrance to Labyrinth is inside the apartment…"

"Waitaminute. I think I know where you're going with this, and why you insisted on bringing all this stuff for just a one-bedroom townhouse apartment sweep-and-clear." Peter squinted at the building. "We're going to go into Labyrinth, aren't we? To rescue Janine?"

Ray nodded with a twinkle in his eye. Peter just sighed. Argument was futile because no one else would likely rescue her. _It comes with wearing the circle-slash-ghost._

"You know, Ray, we oughta' leave one of the packs in the car. It's a possibility that we'll be bolting out the building with some nameless horror from hell right behind us. If we should have to drop our stuff while inside, it'll be a huge relief."

"Don't know about you Pete, but I'm planning to return here without losing anything. Both packs come with us. And so does this PKE Meter, set especially to Janine's bio-frequency; as well as the Ecto-Visor with night vision enhancement, and a few other small tools," said Ray, tossing Peter the Ecto-Visor and a small piton gun.

Cautiously the two scientists started up the steps to Janine's apartment and proceeded through the doorway over the fallen door. Inside they found broken furniture, dishes, and potted plants among the chaotic debris of papers, stale food, ectoplasm and chains dangling from the ceiling. They exchanged glances and powered up their packs. As they continued through the wreckage and the eerie silence, they rounded a corner into the hallway where they saw the dark stone-lined entrance to Labyrinth.

"I don't think that's any old secret passage," whispered Ray. "Careful now." Peter nodded in agreement.

The two Ghostbusters descended into darkness and were immediately struck by the awful smell, a vile combination of stagnant water, old stone, and decaying corpses, as well as the hollow echoes of their own footfalls. Only the lights on their Proton Packs cut through the immediate darkness, making it barely possible to see. A distant growl immediately caught the attention of the two men.

"Far too faint to be close…" whispered Ray.

He reached down onto his belt and pressed a button on an object resembling a palm pilot. Peter pulled down his Ecto-Visor over his eyes and scanned the area for safety. As they continued, the few visible stone carvings on the walls shocked the two men. As they rounded a corner into an area of amber candlelight and faint purple light, they heard distant tortured screams and incredibly hopeless moaning. For perhaps the first time, the horrible realization of the gravity of the situation sunk into Doctors Peter Venkman and Ray Stantz. The growling from earlier cut through those distant sounds, causing Peter to pull down his visor once again. This time he saw a form in the distance. It appeared to be running along the walls, advancing on their position. This form was shaped like an upside down human, except where its forearms and hands should have been there were paws and long sharp claws. Where its legs should have been, there were short, stubby, dinosaur-like hands. Where the head should have been, there was a long snaky tail. Instead of a groin, there was a very small head with lots of long sharp teeth. The growling grew very loud, sounding very much like that of a terrier.

"Hey Ray, there's a large form coming down the hall toward us. Hide over there near that stone outcropping and I'll attract the attention of whatever is coming down the corridor. When it passes you open fire. We'll fry that sucker," said Peter, pushing up his Ecto-Visor.

The thing came around the bend in the hall, and was now visible to the scientists. It was much uglier than its Ecto-Visor image, and was covered with pale pink skin. Two dark beady eyes sat near the top of its head. Its nostrils were long and wide in the middle of its mutant face. It stopped and the two blackened eyes focused on Peter.

"Hello Poochie," he taunted. "Come any closer and I'll avenge tormented mail carriers everywhere!"

The thing narrowed its eyes and began charging, hands and mouth outstretched, growling all the way.

"Have it your way," said Peter.

Just as the beast was about to run over the visible Ghostbuster a bright orange stream ripped through the darkness at the beast's backside. It lunged forward in pain and surprise. Peter backed away and fired his own atomic weapon at the inverted creature's head. Searing orange beams danced all over the creature's pale pink form. Smoke rose off the monster's burning flesh. It scurried higher up the walls and hauled its smoldering carcass back down the corridor, yelping all the way.

"And don't come back," shouted Ray.

The two Ghostbusters continued, following the specially tuned PKE Meter through the endless maze of corridors and hallways toward Janine's bio-signal, praying that it would still be active when they arrived. When they got to a particular open corridor, they stopped and looked up at a gigantic diamond-shaped prism emitting purple light.

"What's that gigantic thing that's patterned like the puzzle box?" asked Peter.

"That's Leviathan. It powers and oversees dimensions of darkness. Whoever takes control of Leviathan will rule Labyrinth and any other dimension it overtakes," Ray explained. "This thing has been the stuff of occult legend for millennia. It would be so cool if I could actually interact with it and study it!"

"No Ray, it wouldn't. Let's go."

After awhile, the two hell-bound Ghostbusters happened into a dark, wet, and smelly corridor that had faint red light emanating from each of the many prison cells. The faint light bounced off endless rows of chains hanging down from darkness above. A few of the tormented prisoners or their tormentors screamed or growled at the scientists and startled them. But it was not until they got to the cell adjacent to Janine's that they found a real surprise. At the Ghostbusters' approach, the cell occupant looked up furiously. The same sunken red eyes that paid their secretary only a glance were now firmly fixed upon them. Peter and Ray realized they were engaged in a stare-down with Vigo the Carpathian.

"So this is where you ended up after we blasted you out of our dimension," taunted Peter menacingly. "You don't look so good either, with the prune-face thing and all. It's just too damn bad you're trapped in there and we're out here. C'mon Ray. Let's finish this jailbreak."

No response.

"Let's go Ray. The sooner we get Janine out of here, the sooner we can help Egon and Winston back in Jersey."

Again, there was not a word from the pudgier man.

"Ray? Hey Ray?"

Peter turned to find Ray still staring into Vigo's eyes, as the Carpathian magician chanted a strange mantra. A pale green light channeled into the forehead of the silent scientist from the eyes of the shriveled monster. Ray turned on Peter and began to stalk his buddy, weapon drawn.

"Now I will destroy you once and for all, and your soul will live in eternal torment," said Vigo through Ray.

"Oh shit," said Peter, slowly backing up. "I'm in trouble."

…

Janine watched with dread from her cell. What Peter didn't see is the small machine several feet behind him that rose out of the dark floor. It vaguely resembled an iron maiden. She remembered watching some poor victim back into this machine, only to have all his skin stripped off by razor wire, and the blood drained out of his body via spiked tubes. She guessed that Vigo watched this happen as well. The possessed Dr. Stantz appeared to be backing Peter toward this awful machine.

_Dr. V has no idea how much trouble he's in_, thought Janine. _I have to break Vigo's concentration._

She glanced around her cell and noticed a table with a lot of metallic objects, some sharp, all wicked. This table would be at arm's length if she could move her arms. Janine realized that she had free range of motion with her legs, and got an idea. She immediately slid off her left boot and tore a hole in her thin sock on the edge of the prison throne. Janine extended her toes out through the sock hole and began stretching her leg over to the table. Meanwhile, Ray had his proton gun at Peter's chest, backing him up toward the skin-stripping machine with the vilest grin adorning the possessed scientist's face. As Peter's feet backed up slowly toward the hideous machine, Janine's foot continued stretching toward the table, toes wiggling toward a small metallic object resembling a silver sphere. Finally her toes wrapped around the handle and she picked it up with her foot.

_Here goes nothing_, thought Janine.

She kicked toward the adjoining cell and managed to hurl the small instrument right at the back of Vigo's head. He snarled in shock, lost concentration, and broke the trance.

"Dr. V, don't back up any further!" Janine shouted. "You'll end up so much pepperoni!"

Peter fell forward on Ray, tackling him to the ground and just narrowly avoiding the hungry maw of the evil machine.

"What happened?" murmured Ray groggily.

"Vigo got you again, and you tried to push both of us into that," sighed Peter, pointing at the skin-stripping machine. "Now let's do what we came to do."

They both got up and melted Janine's prison bars with proton beams, and then grabbed some leftover sharp instruments off the table and cut the shackles of the throne.

"We owe you one babe," said Peter, giving Janine a quick peck on the cheek.

"Yes we do. Pete, I'm sorry, I… I don't know what came over me," said Ray regretfully.

As they moved to exit the cell, Peter, Ray, and Janine were confronted by three skinless humanoids with glowing green crystals protruding from the backs of their necks.

"If I can't force you to kill each other, I guess my minions will just have to do it," sneered Vigo. The drones immediately muscled them to the ground, released them from their packs, and attempted to wrestle them toward the skin-stripper. Peter and Ray managed to grab a couple of the sharp tools that landed on the floor and slashed at them, forcing the minions to release the two men and then the redheaded woman. However, a minion had accidentally rolled over a proton pack and set off its ridiculously short self-destruct cycle. Recognizing the noise, Ray screamed to Peter and Janine.

"We've got to get out of here right now!"

Janine and Peter leapt up and dashed out of the prison cell as the minions struggled to their own feet. As Janine scooted past, a minion grabbed her foot, tried to pull her back to the ground, and pulled off her other boot. The three heroes were about to flee from the room when Ray caught Vigo's gaze one more time and stopped.

"Oh not again, Francine!" exclaimed Peter.

Peter and Janine grabbed Ray by the arms and dragged him out of the chamber and away from Vigo's gaze as the Proton Packs exploded and incinerated the pursuing minions. Ray regained mental control, but the three heroes were not yet in the clear. They soon found themselves back in the Leviathan chamber. However, their path was now blocked by a huge chasm, leaving no way out. With an atomic fireball rapidly surging toward them, Peter looked at Ray and Janine for ideas.

"I've got it!" exclaimed Ray. "Peter, do you still have that piton gun from the car?"

"Yeah," started Peter.

"Can you aim well?"

"I was the staff ace on my high school ball club."

"Shoot the piton into Leviathan and we'll swing across the chasm to the other side on its steel cable," said Ray.

"What do I look like? Indiana Jones?" asked Peter incredulously.

"Do you have a better idea, Dr. V?" said Janine. "I don't think the approaching fireball cares about negotiations."

"Aw hell…" murmured Peter and fired the hook up to the giant prism. Amazingly it locked into Leviathan and they swung across on the steel cable. As they sailed through the air, Ray backhanded a small tracking device onto the side of the hovering prism. They landed on the other side and used Ray's PKE Meter to retrace their steps through the darkened maze of corridors back to Janine's apartment as fast as they could possibly move. Despite their frantic wind sprints, the atomic explosion was drawing closer, illuminating their path more and more. As they reached the dimensional exit, Janine felt the intense heat of the fireball on her backside. The trio dived onto the apartment hallway just in time to have the last flame of the explosion fly over their heads and fizzle out. Janine exchanged glances with Ray and Peter, all three of them out of breath.

"I can't—believe—we—got out!" Gasped Ray. They then heard the same growling as when they first entered the nightmarish alternate dimension.

"Not again," Peter said in frustration and slicked back his dark brown mane.

They rose, crept out to the living room and found the same beast the two men had fried earlier, only this time it wore dingy metallic spiked armor. The creature's blackened skin made it even uglier than before. It snarled at them and began to stalk the exhausted humans.

"I take it you guys fried Lassie here on the way in," deadpanned Janine.

"Well not only that, but Pete gave him a severe taunting," stated Ray. "I think he wants revenge."

As the beast charged at them, Ray took his PKE meter and jammed the device into its open mouth. The creature stumbled around for a few seconds, choking on it, before biting the meter in half. Peter, Ray, and Janine used this time to scramble out the apartment entryway and down to Ray's red Civic still parked outside. The feral demon charged down the apartment steps as Ray started the car, put it into gear and drove off with the beast in hot pursuit. It followed them roughly five blocks before giving up and going back inside the disorderly apartment.

"What a night," sighed Peter, staring back at the demon as the red Civic sped toward the firehouse.


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 6 

Ecto-1 cruised down the New Jersey Turnpike. Inside, Egon sat in the front passenger seat, quietly typing on his laptop. Winston was driving the converted emergency vehicle. John sat quietly in the back seat. A small black wire connected the computer to the ambulance's consoled dashboard. Egon was planning out the route to Vineland.

"According to my computer's calculations, the quickest way to our destination is to continue down this turnpike until we get near Philadelphia, then to exit onto highway fifty-five southeast. Exit thirty-two off that highway should lead us right there. The actual facility we want is a few miles out of the extreme northeast end of town, almost to the Cumberland county line," stated Egon.

"You know, this trip will probably take us two hours, even with the light traffic this time of night," reminded Winston as he flipped on Ecto's sirens.

"I know, but there is no quicker way down," Egon sighed.

"You sure," questioned Winston.

"I'm sure," snapped Egon. His brain focused on the task at hand, but his mind was light years away thinking about Janine. What if she was being tortured? What if he never saw her again? No. That wouldn't happen. He knew that Ray and Peter would do their utmost to bring her back. But what if they failed? Never before had the Ghostbusters faced a situation quite like this one, and the mysterious nature of the Cenobite psychokinetic energy worried him. There was so much to do and here he was, stuck in a two-hour car ride down to a little Podunk town and a facility that he wasn't sure even still contained the person they needed to find. The physicist's mind jumped back to Janine. He had in the past taken for granted that she would continue to pursue his affection; he had even gotten used to the idea. He had planned several times to tell her how he felt, but always got cold feet at the last moment and would further put it off –he was unused to such raw emotional feeling being a man of reason. Emotions were things he had learned to despise and avoid. Somehow he thought admitting his feelings to her would make him appear weak, because another human being had power over him. He was sure that if they were to meet again, he would take her aside privately and tell her just how he felt about her. At least he hoped he would.

"Hey man, I know you're worried about your girl," said Winston, as he shot the bespectacled man a sympathetic gaze. "We'll get Janine back."

Egon was a little bit surprised at Winston's comment. He was probably the man of the group that Egon knew the least about. And lately Winston had surprised him. Until a few weeks ago, he never knew that his teammate was a former military captain, that he could repair a car, and that he was good enough at baseball to play professionally. Could he read minds as well?

"What?" asked John, from Ecto-1's spacious back seat.

"Well, Janine had a thing for Egon as long as I can remember. And we all knew that he felt something for her, but was too shy to admit anything, so we just let him be."

"Shy' is not the appropriate term," fumed Egon Spengler.

"And when our bookkeeper Louis Tully had announced that he and Janine were dating, Egon seemed to disappear for a full week. Brother just locked himself in his lab all day, working with his tools but not really making anything. Both Pete and Ray agreed that he was taking it hard."

Dr. Spengler was now a beet red color, as he buried his face deeper into his laptop.

"I see. If there's anything that my, um, encounters have taught me, it's to never let a sun set on your issues," advised John. "I know that sounds contrite but it's done wonders for me."

"What do you do for a living, anyway?" asked Winston.

"I'm a screenwriter," replied John. "I'd had some unfinished scripts lying around my apartment. Then I had my major encounter with Pinhead and the Cenobites. It nearly killed me. When I finished that ordeal, I had found myself relieved of my job as an architect. Something about my company not liking it that I missed so much work."

"And so much is…"

"When you travel the ages, you lose track of time. I had to take their word that I had been gone one week without contact. Anyway, I had to accept it. What was I going to tell them, that I had been chasing Cenobite demons across time? I doubt you'd have even believed me."

"Yeah, probably not. And we deal with weird shit all the time," said Winston.

"So I got back to my apartment and that night I wrote a script about what had happened to me. Six hours later, I had a decent movie script. I called it "Hellbound: Merchant's Story." I knew an old friend from college who had become an agent. I contacted him with my script and we sold it to a studio. It ended up the movie "Hellish Bloodline" and I've been working ever since. I even finished and sold those other old scripts. I'd say tell her your feelings if you see her again, because honestly right now that's a big 'if'."

Egon cleared his throat. "Tell me a little more about the Cenobites and their habits. I want to log it and submit it to Spates for publishing."

John Merchant began jabbering away rather quickly. A lesser typist would have fallen behind, but Egon was tapping keys so fast that Winston from the corner of his eye swore he saw smoke rising from the laptop keyboard.

A short time later, Winston quickly saw something out the car window that alarmed him, and pointed to it. "Hey guys, look over in that suburb over there." The normally tidy houses were all unkempt, there was a military convoy blocking a street, and Egon and John swore they saw humanoid forms attacking some of the soldiers. Everyone inside Ecto-1 all exchanged glances of worry.

"I think we're going the right way," commented Egon.

The guys saw many similar situations from the vehicle windows. The elevated freeway revealed many burning buildings, orange glow lighting up the deep violet sky. There was many an overturned vehicle, even police cars and military vehicles. There were quick glimpses of people running about, pursued by dark shapes. No one in the vehicle had to guess what those shapes were. Pinhead's path ran parallel to the New Jersey Turnpike, and it was headed in the same direction they were.

…

Ecto-1 finally reached the highway-fifty-five interchange after a couple hours and they soon reached the city limits of the town of Vineland, New Jersey. Traveling through the tiny burg, the stillness alarmed the two Ghostbusters and the Cenobite expert. Each house was nestled cozily next to the others, manicured lawns adding to the Norman Rockwell-esque scenery; ordinary automobiles parked along the curbs here and there; downtown storefronts tidy save for the random litter and dust along the pale gray rivers of concrete, now peaceful and dark except for the dull golden illumination of the periodic streetlight. Pinhead had not been here yet, but was undoubtedly on his way. Winston stepped on the gas pedal, and Ecto-1 raced through the town's streets toward Vineland home for girls. The path carried them up a road that winded through rolling hills to a small two-story facility that looked like a former school. Vineland's night management would need a really good reason to transfer a patient this early in the morning. Ecto-1 pulled up near the rear entrance. All three men got out. Egon tossed Winston and John orderlies' uniforms.

"Here, put these on," whispered Egon, as he removed his jumpsuit to reveal slacks, a blue collared shirt and brown tweed tie, over which he slipped on a white lab coat. The paranormalist looked like a senior psychologist, and perfect in his disguise with nary the smallest of hairs out of place.

"Um, I thought we had this all legally arranged," whispered John to Egon.

He dug around in the maze of wires and electronic objects and pulled out a briefcase from among the slime blowers, ghost traps, and other technical equipment in the rear of the ambulance. "It is… almost."

Winston and John exchanged apprehensive glances. The three men walked up to the admitting entrance of the facility from the ambulance driveway. The building looked like an old school building, the red brick façade made visible by yet more golden illumination from the driveway streetlights. The two-story building stood like a menacing behemoth against the backdrop of purple haze. Yet, even in this odd darkness one couldn't help but feel as though visiting an old friend in a cozy cottage when looking at the building. The small tidy bushes around the building's perimeter added to its stoic beauty. Egon pulled out a PKE Meter from his pocket and scanned the area just to make sure all was well. The meter registered nothing out of the ordinary and he put it away. He opened the door and walked up to the night watchman with the two faux-orderlies in tow.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Spengler. I am a clinical and behavioral psychologist from New York. There was supposed to be a patient released into my care named Kirsty Cotton. She was to have been transferred to a facility near Manhattan earlier today. I apologize for my tardiness, but we had engine trouble and the repair time delayed us greatly."

The night watchman peered out the window. The blurred, cloudy glass revealed a vague shape of an ambulance and blue emergency flashers. A clearer glass would have revealed the mass of gadgetry on the vehicle's roof and its "no-ghost" logos. Egon opened his briefcase and pulled out the transfer papers. Winston silently stood to the left of his brave colleague. _I really hope you know what you're doing. We're not very convincing. _ The plump, middle-aged watchman looked over the trio.

"Okay, just let me call our resident nurse, Martha Crabbe, and verify the transfer. In the mean time, please come inside and help yourself to some coffee in the staff lounge," replied the watchman.

_At least we're in. We can find her on our own if necessary. This place isn't all that big, and I'll bet Egon's a wizard at cracking security codes. _Winston glanced over at the fenced wing of the facility that led to the patient sleeping rooms. Most of the building's lights were off at this time of night, making the darkness of the expansive hallways seem quite creepy. He was doing his best to remember his military days and impersonate a stationed guard. John was watching him and trying to mimic his actions. With such rigid postures both men looked like they had spent the day sitting on porcupines.

"Hello? Dr. Spengler?" came a gruff yet gentle aged feminine voice from the hallway. Egon glanced in the direction of the voice. "I'm Martha Crabbe, head nurse here at Vineland." She extended her right hand in professional courtesy and Egon accepted it.

"Now, are you sure that Miss Cotton is the patient you're looking for? I was not notified of any sort of transfer. Something upset her earlier this evening and I sent her to bed. It's not really in her best interest to wake her. May I see the transfer order?"

Egon handed her the phony transfer order, and hoped that it was authentic enough to convince her despite the fact that there was no way to prevent such an error of protocol. She examined it carefully and escorted them in past the fiberglass gates to the long corridor leading to the sleeping rooms.

"Apparently Dr. Honeycutt forgot to tell you about the transfer," stated Dr. Spengler, referring to the facility's administrator. He had done his homework on the facility staff.

"Yes. He's done that once before. He had left on vacation and forgot to tell the staff about a patient that was on her way. Thankfully, we had an empty room and could admit her."

_What good fortune, _thought Egon. "You are more than welcome to call and confirm it with our Dr. Elias in my facility up in Manhattan tomorrow morning. His office number is on the document."

Nurse Crabbe raised an eyebrow at the name. "I thought he retired last year…"

"Yes, well… He works now in a… mere advisory role," stammered Egon.

They reached Kirsty's sparse room. The glow of purple illuminated the dwelling through the curtains of the large window, giving the otherwise white furnishings a soft lavender glow. Kirsty was sleeping soundly but every couple of seconds she would mumble something about chains and demons. Nurse Crabbe gently woke her. "Kirsty, this is Dr. Spengler. You remember him, don't you girl? He's here to take you up to Manhattan for a little while."

"Dr. Spengler?" Asked Kirsty, groggily awakening.

The two faux-orderlies, the nurse, and the masquerading psychologist escorted the young woman out toward the restricted area exit. Two resident security officers were waiting there for them. Nurse Crabbe faced the two orderlies and the scientist.

"I thought the Spengler name sounded familiar. Then I remembered where I'd heard it. Dr. Elias _is_ retired. Has been for three years. I used to read his publications regularly. And on this transfer order. We haven't used the falcon seal in a long time. You guys aren't with the Tri-State psychological association are you? Sorry Dr. Spengler, you and your ghost hunting buddies are not getting out this door with that young woman. Why should I not have these officers detain you? Why don't you tell me what's going on?"

Egon stared at the stern nurse like a deer in headlights. Their cover was blown. While compiling the forged papers back at the firehouse, he had not remembered to verify something as obvious as a logo. He looked at Winston, who shot him a "we tried" glance. He looked again at Nurse Crabbe and spoke. "Has Kirsty mentioned anything about a 'Pinhead' or about Cenobites?"

"Yes I did. I saw them in my mind earlier this evening!" replied Kirsty, eyes growing wide.

"We have spent the better part of an evening dispatching his creations. This girl is not crazy. We have to get her out of here right now. These Cenobites are on their way here as we speak," stated Egon curtly.

John spoke up. "And when he finds her here, he'll kill her, you, the other girls, you two security boys over there, and us if we're still here."

"Now just wait a minute. That's a pretty wild story. You guys may not be leaving here at all," started Nurse Crabbe.

Just then a scream echoed down the hallway from the admitting entrance. Within a few moments the night watchman came crawling into the lobby, leaving a wet shiny trail on the tile floor behind him. The skin had been peeled from his head and face. There were chains hooked into the shiny crimson muscle tissue. Directly behind him was the distinct form of a humanoid in fetish clothing with long thin shapes protruding from his head. Egon's PKE Meter chirped to life inside his trouser pocket. The figure entered the light and summoned more of those otherworldly chains. The chains' small hooks began punching holes in the fiberglass of the gate, attempting to tear the structure out of the wall. The two security officers backed away from the demons. Kirsty and Nurse Crabbe screamed while the Ghostbusters and John stared at Pinhead. Accompanying him was the "Chompers" Cenobite, the "Butterball" Cenobite, and an army of Cenobite creations. Right now the fiberglass gate was the only thing separating the two parties, and the only source of security for the human party. It would not be long before it was compromised. They had to quickly think of something.


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 7 

"Do you believe us now?" shot Dr. Egon Spengler to Nurse Crabbe. She nodded but fear kept her from speech. Kirsty started mumbling.

"No, no, no… you're not supposed to be real! They said you were only my imagination! They… You…" Kirsty broke down into shaking sobs. John ran to her side and embraced the terrified girl. "Come on, poor girl, we're not going to let them get you."

"No tears, please. It's a waste of good suffering," purred Pinhead from the other side of the buckling gate. "Toymaker! It's good to see you again."

"Nurse Crabbe, go with the two security officers and round up the other girls. Get them to a hiding place. John, take Kirsty and try to find a way out of the building," barked Winston. "Do it now! Go!"

The head nurse and the two officers tore off down the hallway toward the patient sleeping rooms. John gathered up Kirsty and they started jogging down the long hallway toward darkness. Egon leaned in to his partner.

"What are you planning to do?" He asked quietly.

"Get our Slime Blowers from the car."

"You know the only way out is past the Cenobites," quietly stated Egon. "You'll need a distraction."

"Yep. I'm gonna' be the distraction. You get the packs."

The gate's resistance finally broke and the fiberglass and metal structure tore from the wall and hit the polished tile floor with an echoing clang. The Cenobites strode forward. Pinhead sent half his Cenobite army down after Nurse Crabbe and the officers. He, "Chompers," "Butterball," and the rest of the creatures followed John and Kirsty.

Winston and Egon ran off with John and company, but took a sharp detour into a darkened closet, and listened for footfalls. When everything died down, they snuck out back toward the lobby, and cautiously surveyed the territory. There were two Cenobite creations standing guard near the center of the lobby. One of these two had eyes all over its body, bloody wounds where the eyeballs had been rammed. The other could best be described as a "Minature Pinhead" with long spinal tap needles sticking out of its head and arms in patterns of inverted crosses. Both of these creatures were facing away from Winston. He crept along slowly, and reached down, picked up a small chunk of fiberglass, and threw it at the Miniature Pinhead. The creature growled in surprise, and turned to face its would-be assailant. It charged up to Winston and started swinging at the Ghostbuster, attracting the attention of the eyeball monster. Both creatures came after Winston and he led them down a dimly lit expansive hallway. Watching all of this, Egon left his hiding spot and ran toward the admitting entrance and Ecto-1, giving one last glance at Winston and the creatures. Dodging the attacks of the Cenobite creations was rapidly sapping the energy of his colleague, whom probably couldn't hold out much longer. He broke into a wind sprint and quickly made it out the broken building entrance.

Egon dashed over to Ecto-1 and retrieved both Slime Blowers from the rear of the car, put one on, and powered it up. The second Blower was too heavy to drag along, meaning Winston would have to come get it. Time to test the blood slime He ran back inside, down the hallway, and also threw a small chunk of debris at the creatures. They turned from his winded colleague and charged toward him. Miniature Pinhead prepared to whack him with its needle arms when he opened fire on both creatures. They stumbled around a bit in the slime shower and fell down motionless. Egon escorted his slightly bruised colleague toward the path back down the hallway to the side entrance and kept watch at the door. Winston hustled back out to Ecto-1 for the other pack and spied John's face in a second-story window. He saw Winston as well and was staring at him. The golden reflection of the parking lot lights off the window illuminated his worried expression. Winston quickly rejoined his colleague in Vineland's side entrance lobby, and both men faced the difficult task of deciding whom to rescue first.

"When I was getting my Slime Blower I saw John's face in a window on the far end. Man looked really worried, like Pinhead and his cronies weren't far behind. We ought to rescue them first," advised Winston. "Remember, we're shit out of luck if Pinhead kills them."

"True, but I don't relish the idea of living the rest of my life with the deaths of a registered nurse and several young women on my conscience, do you? We should go after them first," countered Egon.

"Damn it, I wish we had Ray and Pete here," cursed Winston. "Pinhead and his two top cronies were moving faster toward John and Kirsty."

"Heeeelp!" John's voice echoed from down the hallway.

"I guess the choice is made," commented Winston, as both Ghostbusters sprinted down the hallway toward John and Kirsty. They didn't see the two creatures Egon had shot down get back to their feet and shake off most of the slime before charging down the corridor after them.

…

John was trying his hardest to keep still and silent, as was Kirsty. After an initial breakdown in the hallway, John's efforts and her own resolve sent her mind out of panic mode and into survival mode. Afraid she'd emit a terrified squeak and give away their positions in the prevalent darkness should the mega-demons enter the room, she had pulled John's hand over her mouth and was holding it there with her own. John had hoped his desperate glance had communicated to Winston that the footfalls of Pinhead and his top demons were growing louder. The clangs and thuds of overturning beds, tables, chairs, and other such furniture in nearby rooms meant that the two hiding human beings didn't have much time left before they were found. He silently regretted that he had screamed for help, because it directly cut in half the number of rooms that the Cenobites would need to search to find them. John had lucked out in choosing a room that was piled high with boxes, old sheets, and other such storage junk. Crawling to their cramped and dusty hiding place in the pitch-dark maze of junk had made a little noise. At least, the Cenobites would have to dig through a lot to get to them if they found them, meaning more time for Egon and Winston to return with their weapons.

They then heard the creak of the door and spied a faint glow of white light from that direction. "You two will soon learn the pleasures of hell," a breathy voice growled from the direction of the light. The trio of Cenobites had located them faster then John had anticipated. John tensed up and tightened his huddle on Kirsty. He was uncertain what he felt greater: the rapid thumping of Kirsty's heart or the mad pounding of his own. "Come children, embrace your fate. There is no way out. You will know physical pain like never before, and you will learn to crave it." The sudden thump of an overturning box startled him and caused him to errantly bump an elbow, making a slight scratching sound. Pinhead, Chompers, and Butterball immediately turned to face the direction of the noise. The three demons began an assault on the room's junk with their otherworldly hooks, trying madly to uncover the origin of the noise. John felt naked and helpless without some kind of charm or weapon to protect himself and his charge. Kirsty got his attention with a gentle elbow nudge and motioned in the dark for him to follow her. He guessed she had found some kind of pathway through the dusty junk that led right to the room's door and was out of sight of the awful Cenobites.

Winston and Egon rushed down the corridor, shooting any Cenobite creations they found along the way. They hustled up the dimly lit tile staircase to the second floor and toward the extreme end of the facility wing. Footfalls distracted the Cenobites for just a moment, and the two escapees saw their opportunity. They crawled out the door and slammed it behind them. The two Ghostbusters spied the would-be victims and ran up to them. All four people were standing in near total darkness. Only pale white halogen glow from further down the hall made their shapes visible.

"He's… they're in that room…" gasped Kirsty.

Egon's PKE Meter beeped to life from his gun belt. The meter registered the same information as had Ray's at the bookshop. These were no demonic creations, they were the real deal: undiluted, chaotic, evil, Cenobites.

"You know, it would be a better idea to ignore them right now and hustle down to the girls at the other end of the wing," suggested Winston. "I feel better about avoiding a confrontation with those nasty bastards until we have to."

"Agreed," said Egon flatly. "Can you two stand?"

"Yes," said John, helping Kirsty to her feet. "We sneaked out the door when they were trying to find us in the maze of junk in that room."

Just then, an otherworldly chain broke through the window glass of the room's door and snaked toward them in midair. Not a word was needed as they dashed down the upper-level corridor. They dashed down the stairs only to be confronted at the bottom with an army of cenobite creations, all of them dripping with pink slime.

"Oh, shit," moaned Winston.

The chain that had been pursuing them now hovered like a floating Cobra at the top of the stairwell. Pinhead and his two Cenobites advanced into the pallid white glow of the stairwell lights. Illumination seemed to make them uglier than before. The trapped four humans moved up to the small mezzanine between both sets of stairs. John and Kirsty moved discreetly behind Winston and Egon, both of whom were directly facing upstairs. Suddenly the two Ghostbusters opened fire on the trio of Cenobites, hoping to down them in a slime shower. Terror took all motion from the four humans when they saw the three Cenobites still standing, pink slime dripping off their sinister frames.

"You Ghostbusters have meddled in my affairs long enough. I will relish adding you to my ranks," stated Pinhead, controlled glee making his breathy voice seem more otherworldly. "You have eluded me long enough, Toymaker," he hissed, turning attention to John and Kirsty. He then motioned toward Egon Spengler. The waiting hook now shot straight toward him, curved spike gleaming in the light of the stairwell. He put his arms up to shield his face and braced for tremendous stinging pain.

The pain never came. The hook got within inches of Spengler before an invisible force field repelled it. A mixture of surprise and annoyance exploded across Pinhead's pale blue face. He tried sending three more hooks at the two standing Ghostbusters. All three again came within mere inches of the paranormal exterminators before snaking back from the invisible force field.

Winston and Egon exchanged glances at each other, and then at the heavy slime-filled tanks on their backpacks. Pinhead growled in rage and frustration and again attacked with the hooks, but this time summoned a whole volley of the little surgical steel devices. Again, they all snapped back in unison from the invisible force field like demented metallic dreadlocks. The Ghostbusters under siege again exchanged glances and sprayed John and Kirsty without a word. They both shrieked in surprise when hit by the cool, gooey slime and fell down in the pink, putrid shower. Pinhead tried summoning his hooks against the fallen slimy humans. The two paranormal specialists saw the positive results of their attempted experiment as the hooks were again stopped by an invisible barrier mere inches from their victims. John and Kirsty stood up and faced the army at the bottom of the stairs.

"BANZAI!" shouted John as he dove into the waiting sea of sub-demons. The others followed right behind, Winston and Egon smacking off angry Cenobite creations with their large, heavy, thermos-like pack cannons. After a lot of struggling, they all managed to get through and charged back down the corridor. While fighting through the mob, Egon could have sworn he spied their missing accountant, Louis Tully. Louis seemed unharmed but distant, as if controlled by an unseen force. Egon chose to keep the sight to himself.

The four humans ran down the dimly lit corridor back toward the other wing. Upon reaching the lobby with the admitting entrance, John got an idea.

"Winston, toss me the keys to your vehicle," he said quickly. Winston looked at him curiously. "Pinhead's after us and we don't want him showing up while you guys are saving the girls and their nurse. We'll start Ecto-1, drive around the parking lot, and meet you guys at the back side of the building."

Winston tossed John the keys and sent Kirsty and him out to Ecto-1. Then they went charging down the dim hallway to the sleeping quarters. The two Ghostbusters shot the dozen Cenobite creations they found along the way, and upon reaching the quarters, began calling for Nurse Crabbe. After hearing her voice they wandered into a large shower room, found several more hideous Cenobite creations, and shot them all. Martha Crabbe and the fifteen girls all came out from custodial closets whose white doors blended into the shiny walls almost perfectly.

"What happened to the two security officers with you?" Asked Winston.

"Didn't you see them out in the hall? They died trying to keep those awful creatures from getting us," replied Nurse Crabbe. "I only looked back quickly, but both officers appeared to be having long things rammed into their heads. I didn't want to see any more."

"Well, we discovered that our weapons don't work on the Cenobites," started Egon. "But, if we shoot you, the Cenobites cannot harm you."

"Oh. Will the slime hurt us?" Asked the head nurse reluctantly.

"Naah. In fact, if any of you pass out from the shower you'll wake up feeling like a million bucks," reassured Winston.

"Girls, please gather over here around me in a small group," commanded Crabbe.

As soon as the girls were all gathered in a tiled corner of the expansive shower room, the two Ghostbusters opened fire on them and coated them all with the smelly, gooey slime shower. A few of them passed out from the murky assault, but most just stood there shocked.

"Now, get back in your hiding spots. My PKE Meter indicates that the creatures we downed outside the shower room are walking again. Is there anything in any of those closets that you can use to fight off the Cenobite creations if you're found? We're not sure if they can still attack you with foreign objects," asked Egon urgently.

"Well, there are brooms and mops," said Nurse Crabbe, motioning for the girls to return to their hiding spots. "But some of the girls are not ready to be fighting anything, let alone terrifying monsters."

"I was afraid of that," replied Egon. "Okay. Winston and I will attract the attention of the creatures. They seem to have limited memory capacity. We will attempt to make them forget about you and come after us."

…

Out in the parking lot, John was attempting to decipher the puzzle of lights and buttons on the dashboard of the converted ambulance. He had the car started, and wanted to do as much as possible to draw the attention of Pinhead, his cronies, and the Cenobite creations away from the hospital. That meant either drawing attention to the vehicle with extra lights or frying half the Cenobite army with the roof cannon.

"Pinhead's still in there with the girls, right?" Asked Kirsty. John could see the worry carved in her weathered yet cherubic face. "Won't he kill all of them after we leave?"

"Not likely. Pinhead's not patient at all. He won't bother to wait around to clean the slime off the girls while his intended quarry is getting away. And he operates mostly on instinct. In short, he doesn't want them and won't wait for some quick side-suffering if it takes any kind of effort," replied John.

It seemed to ease her mind a little, but she still wore a slightly worried look. John, meanwhile, spied Pinhead and his cronies emerge from the building's wrecked admitting entrance and march toward them like demented soldiers. He wished he could figure out which of the many buttons activated that damn cannon. It would have to wait until he retrieved the vehicle's owners. He put Ecto-1 into gear and stepped on the gas, sending the aged vehicle lurching forward and down the road away from Vineland Home for Girls.

The toy maker's descendant made sure to keep the Cenobite army close enough to stay in view, but far enough to keep from grasp. After reaching the bottom of the winding drive, John made a sharp turn onto the manicured lawn of the facility's grounds and sped back toward the building.

…

Egon and Winston were standing at the door of the shower room, in plain view of the walking Cenobite army. Worse still, the slimed sub-demons were waking up from the shower room floor. After spying the two paranormalists, they marched toward the doorway. The two Ghostbusters looked at both advancing hordes of Cenobite creations. They had barely been able to fight off the army in the other corridor, and there were twice as many sub-demons here, and two people fewer in their party. There was only a single way out: the gated hallway window behind them. It would have been a simple matter of blasting off the gate had they their Proton Packs. But sliming the windows would not do any good. The creatures stalked slowly toward them. Those that had weapons had them outstretched, ready to bludgeon the two interlopers for their intrusion. Winston and Egon backed up and looked at the painted bars protecting the clear glass window, and their one escape.

Just then, they caught the reflection of familiar blue lights in the glass of the window. John had arrived. They began banging on the structure, attempting to make noise and draw attention. It worked as the vehicle stopped and the passenger door opened. Kirsty saw the frantic motions of the two guys and ran to the window. Winston motioned for the young woman to listen carefully and then shouted.

"RELAY THIS MESSAGE TO JOHN. THE CAR HAS A ROOF CANNON. THE CONTROLS ARE ON THE UPPER LEFT SIDE OF THE CB RADIO. THE SMALL JOYSTICK ROTATES THE CANNON, THE LIGHT-SWITCH-LIKE KNOB INCREASES THE FIREPOWER, AND THE RECTANGULAR BLACK BUTTON FIRES IT. SET IT HIGH, AIM IT AT THE WINDOW, AND BLOW THE WINDOW OUT."

Kirsty nodded affirmatively and quickly went back inside the car. Winston and Egon saw motion from the roof of Ecto-1 and each kneeled down in opposite corners, shielding themselves from the anticipated heat. The Cenobite army was just about to close in when a gigantic orange beam ripped through the window, smashing out the glass and launching the painted metal structure. The atomic beam fried half the advancing sub-demons and the gate flattened the rest of them, before the beam fried them as well. The two Ghostbusters arose and walked out to the car through the new doorway, brushing tiny splinters of glass off of their persons.

"Thanks a lot, man!" Exclaimed Winston, storing his Slime Blower in the rear of the vehicle. "We were goners if you guys hadn't shown up."

"You're lucky Kirsty saw you and startled me into stopping the car," replied John.

"Even when I first met Miss Cotton, I knew she was a sharp woman," stated Egon, storing his own equipment in the trunk.

"Now, out of my driver's seat," stated Winston. John chuckled and moved to Ecto-1's back seat, along with Kirsty.

"Ecto, girl, you saved us again," purred Winston to the vehicle, patting the steering wheel.

"Now back up," commanded Egon. "I assume Pinhead hasn't gotten back to the building yet, and we don't want that to happen."

"Pinhead and his cronies won't hang around to kill the nurse or her patients; too much effort," stated John. "They want us."

Winston threw the vehicle into reverse and back out onto the green grass. He turned the car around, to face the advancing Cenobites. "Everyone strap in tight!" He shifted into overdrive and sped toward Pinhead. The car bounced and thumped around as it made contact with the demonic leader first, and then his two closest Cenobites. Many of the creations moved out of the ambulance's path and attempted to smash in the windows as the huge vehicle raced past them. Ecto-1 had nearly tipped over, but maintained balance when its passengers tensed up in their seats. Winston drove back onto the winding driveway and back down toward the town.

Surprised and relieved that the town of Vineland had survived the ordeal intact, the two Ghostbusters and the two survivors sped back along highway fifty-five toward the New Jersey turnpike, Manhattan, and the firehouse.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 8 

_Damn it, pick up._ Ray Stantz was anxiously pacing about the empty vehicle bay on the main floor of the firehouse. He was trying to contact Egon and Winston through Ecto-1's CB radio and was reaching only busy signals. By his watch, two and a half hours had passed between his descent into and return from Labyrinth. It had felt like forty intense minutes at most. Time must have passed differently between the two realms. Maybe the Leviathan had something to do with it…

"Any word?" Asked Janine Melnitz.

"Unh-uh," shot Ray. "I found several e-mail messages on the computer in Peter's office from Egon that mentioned Pinhead's journey down to New Jersey. I really hope the guys haven't encountered them yet."

By now it was early morning. Peter was having no trouble sleeping in his bed, but anxiety kept Ray from attaining such relief.

"I'm worried too, Ray," empathized Janine, handing the auburn-haired occultist a sleeping pill. "Here. We should both take these and get some sleep. I can sleep on the couch in the TV room."

Janine was sleeping well enough, but Ray kept tossing and turning before finally waking. His eyes went wide as he surveyed the surroundings. The bedroom was the same color as the night sky, purple "darkness" shining in through the small window at the end of the room. Ray recognized the rows of chains hanging from the ceiling and feared the worst. The scientist sat up and looked over at his colleague's bed. Peter was still sound asleep and apparently unharmed. Ray arose out of his bed and walked through the bedroom doorway out to the main room with the fire pole.

The eerie silence of the bedroom gave way to many distant moaning voices that sounded at once painful and hopeless, the sound of suffering. The furnishings looked different. The three arcade machines in the far corner had been replaced by iron maidens, made ominous by the oozing of fresh crimson trails. Instead of the familiar small dining table, there was a large torture rack. Small bits of bloody flesh littered the table's cold iron. The fire pole had large iron spikes protruding from it. There were skulls of different shapes and sizes stuck on several of the spikes. The whole place reeked of tissue decay. Ray did not even want to discover the condition of Egon's lab.

Ray heard a gentle, longing voice coming from the shower stall in the bathroom. It seemed to beckon him. He cautiously traced the voice to its source. A single candle illuminated the numerous crimson streaks smeared along the pale cream tile. He heard the flow of water from behind the shower curtain, and spied a young feminine form. The showerhead was pouring out an opaque fluid instead of the expected translucent shadow of water. The dark liquid splashed off the form as she was gently humming a tune that Ray thought he recognized. All of a sudden the form looked toward him, shut off the shower, and reached toward the cream-colored towel draped over the curtain but instead pulled back the soft barrier.

Standing before Ray Stantz was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Long oak hair gently draped over her soft, round shoulders. Her skin was the perfect shade of peach. Ray looked her up and down. Her breasts were perfectly round, supple, and perky. They were neither large nor small, but erotically curvy for her slender body. Her figure was the perfect hourglass form, hips just a couple inches wider than shoulders. Ray noticed that she shaved, as his eyes continued their journey downward. He shifted his stance, trying to hide his growing erection. Her skin was blemish free. Perfectly shaped ankles and long, fleshy toes with perfectly round, red nails met the tiny cloth fingers of the bath mat. Ray glanced back up at her face. A sly sensual smirk adorned the full ruby lips. Her opaque pupils and high cheekbones echoed the sly sentiment.

"So you like what you see, hmmm Raymond?" she purred.

"How… do you know my name?" quietly asked the aroused man, with a big lump in his throat.

"That's a mystery. You love mysteries, don't you? That's why you do what you do."

A little spark of dread crept into his erotically flammable state of mind. "Can't I at least know your name?"

She giggled. "Angelique." He could have sworn he had heard that name somewhere before…

He was a little surprised as she advanced toward him and embraced him, throwing her body right on top of his. "Mmm, I can tell you like me," she said as she came in contact with his lower regions.

"What's this all about?" Squeaked Ray.

"Well, you're my new hero. The way you led your buddy into Hell and rescued your secretary. You didn't even let an old enemy stop you. And you thought of the daring chasm crossing that saved all your lives. Brave, bold, and resourceful, exactly the qualities in a man that make me hot." She grabbed his hand and guided his fingers down between her legs; she was wet. He was quickly getting there too. She brought her mouth to his, and began. After several long, sensual minutes, she backed away and spoke.

"That was just a small sample. You can have it all if you get both puzzle boxes and bring them to me. Then I won't have to go away anymore, and you will be able to spend an eternity with me. And I'll make sure nothing happens to your friends. Consider my offer, Raymond."

She shoved the stunned, silent man out through the bathroom doorway and closed the door in his face. His emotions were a conflicted mix of eroticism, uncertainty, and dread. He stood there trying to collect his thoughts and cool down when he heard a familiar klaxon from below. Someone was tampering with the Ecto-Containment Unit in the basement. Ray regained sense and hurried down the building's stairs to the main floor and then down the basement stairs, passing through the main floor without a glance. The large basement was orderly and organized, except for that dominant purple haze and the rows of chains hanging from the ceiling. Everything was normal until he checked the ghost-prison.

The Ecto-Containment Unit was missing, completely gone. In its place was Leviathan, pulsing with darkness. An odd mixture of fear and wonder rolled across the pudgy face of the occultist Ghostbuster. He ran up to touch the giant prism and found two large hardbound books. The covers of both books were remarkable: intricate brass lace patterns encircled what looked like large dark hazelwood buttons with tiny arrows pointing inward. He opened one volume and began reading with the marvel of a child trying out a new toy. Ray had found exactly what he had wanted. Here were the secrets of Labyrinth and Leviathan free for him to discover. Suddenly the book slammed shut and stayed that way, as though restrained by an invisible seal. A breathy voice got his attention from behind. "Doctor Raymond Stantz," He recognized the voice from his bookshop and turned instantly to face it.

"Silence, or they suffer." Ray could see Peter and Janine through the purple haze in the corner of the room. They were tied to the same thrones that he and Peter had freed Janine from in Labyrinth. Their whole bodies were bound tight in these thrones. Fear shot across both their faces as they watched a long iron spikes moving rapidly toward their foreheads.

"If you hear me out, nothing will happen to them. You and your friends have shown yourselves to be quite formidable opponents in my game. First, you escaped from your bookstore with the accountant when we came for him. Then you displayed intelligence and courage when venturing through Labyrinth: most would not escape. The few that have did so without their sanity. In fact, your rescue of the secretary and subsequent escape from Labyrinth forced me to change my plans. Finally, your two colleagues annoyingly escaped from me and took the Toymaker and the girl with them. And didn't even allow me to enjoy the suffering of that insipid nurse or her patients." The lead Cenobite approached the terrified yet curious scientist. "Walk with me, Raymond."

"How do I know you won't hurt me?"

"If that was my intention, you would already be suffering," assured Pinhead.

He led Ray toward the main floor stairwell. As they were walking, the lead Cenobite pulled out a tiny framed picture right out of the Twenties from a pocket on his hellish masochism outfit. It contained the portrait of a British military officer. Ray examined the picture carefully. Yellow shoulder stripes adorned the officer's dark khaki jacket. Tiny colored striped ribbon adorned the left breast pocket of the uniform. The black round bill of the angular khaki cap sat high on the officer's forehead. His face wore a proud and determined look. His mouth was still but his eyes were smiling.

"Do you see this man? He seemed to be proud to fight for his country and repel the German forces. But that was far from the truth. You see he had to witness every day another of his comrades – his brothers – fall to enemy bullets. The weather was cold and wet and often made a tiring exercise out of walking through the miry mud of the trenches. The suffering that is war was taking its toll on his soul and his sanity. He wanted a way out. He purchased the Lament Configuration from a gypsy in a small Gallic town upon promise that solving the puzzle would bring him great power, which he would use to end the war. The promise was fulfilled when he solved the puzzle. Soldiers on both sides of the conflict stopped shooting each other and began shooting at the creatures that emerged from the dimensional opening. Resistance was useless. Everyone there was slaughtered, except for the officer whom opened the box. He was able to close it himself, but at a price. He was dragged into Hell as he finished. His desire cost him his soul. This man was I." He threw the portrait against a back wall on the main floor. The glass shattered on impact and shredded the picture. "I've been trapped in this cursed state ever since. Only a few decades your time, but an eternity in Hell for me; surviving only through the sickly sweet scent of suffering."

They reached the main floor and Pinhead guided Ray toward the second floor staircase. "When that accountant and secretary of yours opened our world yet again, we figured to have some incredible delights waiting for us in their suffering. However, we discovered that they had no such desire for the secrets of the Lament Configuration. I began to understand when we invaded your bookstore. The secretary and the accountant were friends of the Ghostbusters. I realized that you might be able to help me if you got involved."

"We're famous in Hell?" Ray asked incredulously.

"You are infamous in Hell," roared Pinhead. "The suffering of demigods and paranormal creatures eclipses that of human suffering. They are almost pure emotion, so we get much greater suffering for much less effort. You and your friends have certainly sent many such creatures to us through your activities."

_So, those paranormal creatures we destroy end up in Hell._

"There are many others: Gozer the Gozarian, the Boogeyman, even Freddy Krueger. Oh, we have special torments reserved for child murderers," he said with a sinister smirk. "They all share one thing in common: fear and loathing of the Ghostbusters. We love to use their fear against them to milk more suffering."

_Why didn't he mention Vigo? _ They began a slow ascent up the stairwell to the second floor, from where Ray had come originally. A question popped into his mind.

"You said you couldn't bring suffering on Louis or Janine. Why not?"

"There are rules governing my actions. Cenobites are mere puppets of Leviathan. I can see what it sees and know what it knows, but must do its bidding. We can slaughter whomever we choose, but only have access to the souls of those that wanted the secrets of Labyrinth for selfish purposes. Since those who opened the box had no appetite for such secrets, the rules were corrupted. I found the opportunity to be free of this curse, and to finally rest in peace. But, I must kill the Toymaker and end his family line along with my own lineage."

"Let me guess: Kirsty Cotton," said Ray flatly.

"You are sharp, Raymond. Only then will I be able to die from this wretched form and regain my soul." They reached the second floor, and Pinhead guided Ray over to the large hallway window. Downtown New York was visible. Fires danced out the windows of many buildings. Many other buildings had been bisected and destroyed. The familiar purple haze enveloped the dark sky. Labyrinth's geometric form resided over the proceedings like a federal judge.

"So the deal is this: Release to me Kirsty and the Toymaker, and I will return Louis Tully to you unchanged. In addition I will give you those books you desire so much. Then I will close up the Lament Configuration and destroy it, sparing your city and your world. If you do not comply, I will personally destroy you and your friends, but first I will make you watch as your fair city turns to Hell. You have until tomorrow afternoon to make your decision. I chose a fitting place to meet you: your bookstore. Be there at exactly three o'clock. If you do not show, I'LL TEAR YOUR SOUL APART!"

Pinhead raised his left hand. From out of the haze a steel mask locked onto Ray's face and started pumping a blue gas into his orifices. There was no discomfort, but his vision was starting to fade. Ray tugged furiously at this mask, trying to remove it. _Consider my offer Raymond._ The drowsy occultist heard the Cenobite's words echo in his mind before all went black.

Ray's eyes shot open and he sat straight up in bed to see his colleague facing him.

"Are you okay?" asked Peter. "You woke me up shouting something about Pinhead." Ray glanced around the bedroom. A soft white light illuminated three other twin beds, each in a different state of tidiness. They were all flanked on the left by tiny end tables of cheap wood, adorned by small reading lamps. Ray looked up at the ceiling. Instead of rows of chains, there was simply white plastered drywall interrupted only by the source of illumination – an ordinary light with a simple sconce. He leapt out of bed and hurried down both sets of stairs with Peter in tow. The commotion awoke Janine from the television room and she followed as well. Ray reached the basement and was greeted by the soft electronic hum of the Ecto-Containment Unit. He dashed over to the unit's small control console and checked the monitors. The large red contraption appeared to be functioning normally. Ray sighed in relief.

"You wanna' tell us what that was all about?" demanded Janine from the top of the stairs.

"Just a dream," sighed Ray.

"'Just a dream' does not make you moan Pinhead's name in bed like he's your gay lover," sternly reasoned Peter. "And 'just a dream' does not make you dash down two flights of stairs to check equipment. What's going on?"

Ray looked at both of them forlornly, realizing there was no dodging the question. Back on the second floor, all three sat down at their small dining table and Ray disclosed every last detail of the nightmare. Except, of course, Pinhead's proposition. No one else could know that; at least not yet.


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 9 

The huge iron firehouse doors slammed open and Ecto-1 pulled gently but firmly into the enormous vehicle bay on the building's main floor. All three people dashed downstairs to greet the emerging paranormalists and survivors.

"Good. You're all here," stated Egon flatly, closing the car door behind him. "We've got a lot to discuss. Meet in my lab in five minutes." The bespectacled scientist pulled Janine aside while Winston, John, and Kirsty ascended the stairwell. "There is something I've meant to tell you for a long, long, time. It is very personal and very difficult for me to say…" Egon shifted his weight and rubbed his neck.

"Yes Egon, what did you want to say? Is it something about my time in Labyrinth?" She stared into his eyes waiting for an answer.

"No, it's nothing to do with the case. Well, it has something to do with it. I just wanted to tell you that…" Egon cleared his throat.

"Yo Egon, Janine! Come on! We need to discuss what we've found!" called Ray from the stairs. The brainy parapsychologist sighed and accompanied Janine up the stairs in silence. Around the large wooden table in Egon's lab, the discussion began.

"Egon, have you been playing in the science projects again?" asked Peter, referring to the dried slime that covered the clothing of the two guests.

"No Peter, but we made an alarming discovery. John's hemoglobin is only useful for repelling Cenobite attacks," replied Egon.

"And the slime stuff didn't even work on Pinhead or his two cronies," added Winston.

"We were naturally surprised when they turned their guns on us," said John. "We almost thought they'd been possessed by Pinhead. But after they slimed us, the otherworldly chains couldn't puncture us."

"So we're back at square one, eh team?" Frowned Ray. "Well, when Peter and I descended into Labyrinth to rescue Janine, we found an old enemy, active but apparently contained in his cell. Vigo Von Homburg, the Carpathian demon, was down there. And he almost got me again."

Winston and Egon attentively sat up. John and Kirsty looked at them.

"Who is Vigo?" Asked Kirsty cautiously.

"Vigo, my dear," said Peter, "is the demon of a sixteenth century Carpathian madman who dabbled in black arts and as a hobby loved the occasional beheading, disemboweling, wracking, and any and all other cruel forms of torture. We met up with that charming guy on New Year's Eve a few years ago because he was trying to possess the baby of a close, personal friend. We ended up blasting him to kingdom come and saving the world."

"While I was imprisoned, I was able to watch him work over some magic spells. He looked real busy, too," added Janine.

"Do you think his spell-casting had something to do with Pinhead's odd behavior?" Asked John.

"That is a real possibility," said Egon. "But at the moment, our major concerns are the Cenobites and their plans."

"Right," said Ray. "So we know we can't stop him with slime, we likely can't stop him with protons, and the longer he's active the more our world changes."

"You ain't kidding, man," said Winston. "You should have seen our drive back home. Looked like we were right in the middle of a late sixties gothic horror movie, with the buildings changing like they are."

"Yeah. Several buildings we could see had changed into large stone monoliths, many of which had clearly visible torture devices, even from the turnpike. Usually only the immediate area in which the Lament Configuration was solved experiences those kinds of changes," informed John. He and Egon stated together, "This seems apocalyptic in nature."

That statement prompted a look of dread on Ray's face. Peter moved over to him and nudged the pudgy scientist with an elbow.

"Are you gonna' tell them about your dream or do I have to?" He whispered to Ray.

…

Back in Labyrinth, Vigo chanted a few more minutes. The small portraits in front of him suddenly caught fire as the door to his cell busted off its hinges, as though pulled by invisible chains. A sinister smirk flashed across his shriveled demonic face as he slowly walked toward the Leviathan, with a few of his cronies in tow. "You've done well thus far," he said to a brunette.

…

Ray sighed. "When Peter, Janine, and I returned home here, we were able to catch a couple hours of sleep. During that sleep I had a very vivid dream. I dreamed that our firehouse and our dimension had been taken over by Leviathan. I had an encounter with Angelique in the bathroom where she told me to get both puzzle boxes for her, and she agreed to make sure that we didn't come to harm. She tried to seduce me in our bathroom. I refused there, and then she led me downstairs to find Leviathan in the place of our Containment Unit and Peter and Janine under threat of physical torture unless I agreed to do what she wanted. Angelique arranged a meeting at three o'clock today at Janine's apartment."

Janine nodded affirmatively but Peter gave him a suspicious glance, the same glance the first time he heard the tale.

Egon said, "Don't you think it might simply have been a dream? Your mind attempting to reconcile the recent events?"

Winson replied, "Egon, you know how psychic Ray is." He looked at John and Kirsty. "In the past, Ray's always come up with crazy but correct solutions on many of our baffling cases. He's also been the one the ghosts love to possess. We oughta' listen when he has a vivid dream. Especially when it sounds like a premonition."

The six other people affirmatively nodded, some more reluctantly than others.

"Don't you guys think we ought to be trying to find those puzzle boxes as well? Even though you can't hurt the Cenobites, you can stop them by closing the box. I've done it twice before," said Kirsty. "And John's done it once himself."

"So by my watch, we've got about fourteen hours to find both Lament Configurations," stated Ray. "I suggest Spates List online for strange things like this. Also, we can access my bookstore's website from here. It contains a list of all other occult shops in the Tri-State Area."

"If we find them, then what?" asked John.

"Then I close them," started Kirsty.

"And while you're closing them, we drop Proton Concussion Grenades into their inner subspace fields," added Egon.

"I thought you said you couldn't get them to hold a fuse for more than a second," stated Peter.

"It was a tenth of a second," reminded Ray, "and you could prevent a premature explosion by linking the PCGs to an external detonator," he hypothesized.

"It is theoretically possible to reverse the dimensional flow by an extreme burst of atomic energy, but I would need to reconfigure the proton concussion grenades to provide the necessary explosive power," said Egon.

"Okay, team," barked Peter. "Egon, you and Ray prepare those grenades and their detonators. John, Kirsty, you start the search for those puzzle boxes. Winston, you make vials of the leftover blood-slime for our protection. Janine, you take a pack and answer the door. I'm right behind"

The loud and frantic pounding echoed up into Egon's lab from the vehicle bay down below. Janine quietly slipped down the stairs, and opened Egon's locker to retrieve his proton pack. Peter slid down the fire pole, slinked to his locker, and grabbed his pack. He motioned to Janine to reach into Egon's locker and retrieve a proton pack, which she quickly did. With Peter flanking her, the secretary cautiously approached the large noisy door. After she slowly pushed it open, a hideous Cenobite reproduction of a police officer started to lunge toward them, nightstick drawn. Janine retreated slightly out of fear. A stocky detective in brown hat and trench coat bludgeoned the creature from behind. As the creature attempted to climb to its feet, Peter stuck his proton gun in the glowing red wound inside the beast's mouth and liquefied its insides. The sub-demon collapsed and the three hauled it outside to a nearby dumpster. After returning inside introductions began.

"I assume by dat little attack right dere that I've come to da right place," started the man in the trench coat. "I'm Detective Bill Pacino wit da NYPD, and I wanna' know why you guys haven't stopped dis ting yet. Da Big Apple's gone ta hell! Now I've always stuck up for you guys whenever crazy shit like dis has happened. But da officers still alive are ready to blame you guys for what's happening. Now I doubt any of it's your fault, but I can't stall for time anymore. So stop dis ting or I'll have ta arrest ya, please?"

Janine shot a worried glance to Peter, who cleared his throat and replied.

"Detective Pacino, I'm Doctor Peter Venkman of the Ghostbusters." He held out his hand to the stocky detective but quickly drew it back when refused. "You and your diligent brave colleagues need to hold out just a little longer. I'm sure you've realized that these aren't the usual spooks that sometimes show up and threaten to, say, rip the core right out of the Big Apple. These creatures we've been facing are much more dangerous, and so if we fail, the consequences will be a whole lot greater for not just New York but the entire world! The reason we've been taking so long is that none of our usual dirt sheets have any info on these monsters, so we've had to do all the research ourselves. I'm sure as a detective you can relate to that right?" Detective Pacino nodded affirmatively. "So the sooner you let us finish our research, the sooner we can go kill the monsters. Just tell the boys at your precinct to avoid the nasty bastards… oh, and, to shoot them in glowing red wounds. That will kill them."

"Really?! Well dat's a big help! Tanks so much for ya time Doctor Venkman. I'll see myself out." With that phrase the detective left through the same iron door that he had entered.

"Getting rid of him was easier than I thought," remarked Peter coyly. "You know, this time it really was our fault." Janine just nodded her head in mock disgust.


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 10 

John and Kirsty were shown to the office computer and given a quick lesson about the Ghostbusters' favorite search engines by Egon, whom afterward drew a little more blood from John for the slime. In the other corner of Egon's lab, Ray was tinkering with the proton concussion grenades and muttering to himself about possible methods of attaching external detonators to grenades without activating them. Peter looked at his watch. Though the time indicated that their firehouse windows should have welcomed the morning sunshine from the east, there was only purplish darkness outside; _that was very bad_. After several long hours, everyone had finished their tasks except John and Kirsty. They were having real difficulties trying to find the other Lament Configuration. They had used up all their sources and, after calling each place, ran into only dead ends. Either all of the occult shops on the Ghostbusters' list had never heard of such a thing, or they were lying. Some were found closed in light of the recent apocalyptic events.

Kirsty wandered out to the lounge where Winston and Peter had chosen to nap on the couches, and Ray and Egon were munching on junk food. "I'm sorry Doctor Spengler, but we couldn't find anything in your database, and we're exhausted. Maybe there is some other way to track it down?" John appeared soon after.

"Well, perhaps we could retrieve my PKE Meter and use the information to track other Cenobites," stated Egon. "Didn't you mention that Angelique wanted the other Lament Configuration, Ray?"

"Uh, yeah… Yes I did," stammered Ray. "The only downside is that doing so may run us right into Pinhead and his cronies, as opposed to Angelique. Since all the Cenobites register basically the same ectopresence we won't know which we're tracking."

"Would you guys mind if we got a little sleep out here in the lounge?" asked John. "Kirsty and I have been out all night as well."

Egon retrieved his PKE meter and rigged it in his laboratory to hone in on other such energy signatures. The meter revealed three of them, a severe concentration near Jersey City, another lesser concentration in Brooklyn, and one more in the Bronx.

"I seem to remember a new occult shop opening in the Bronx very recently," stated Ray.

"Why don't we do this: you guys track the meter's ectopresence to the Bronx, as it will probably take awhile, and if you find the wrong Cenobites, call me and I'll search another area with Kirsty and John, who can stay here and sleep in the meantime."

"Okay, here are the vials of blood slime, more heavily concentrated," stated Winston, handing out little fiberglass flasks attached to boot strap necklaces. "Thanks again John."

"If you had needed a kidney I would have given it," replied John with conviction. "Anything to stop the Cenobites."

"Do you guys really think the packs will work?" Asked Ray to Winston.

"Well, we've got a better shot with them than we did with the Slime Blowers, since we _know_ the slime does nothing. At least there's a chance our throwers will do damage. They did to the demons' creations," replied the fourth Ghostbuster.

Three of the four Ghostbusters gathered up their equipment and load Ecto-1. The giant ambulance busted through the firehouse entryway, lights flashing but sirens silent, toward the Bronx and the source of the Cenobite psychokinetic energy. Kirsty and John proceeded to lie down for a nap while Ray went into Egon's lab and closed the door as quietly as he could. They would need all the sleep they could get if they were to survive Ray's deal with the Cenobites… _The Cenobites can have them just long enough for me to learn the secrets of Labyrinth from those books, then I'll use them to close the gate and banish the demons permanently, _thought Ray as he sat down at the computer to compose Egon a message over e-mail. _I just hope that my back up plan works if something goes wrong._

…

A chilly wind howled across the lightless daytime sky. According to a clock it was now almost noon, but the prevalent darkness blocked out any traces of sunlight. At least the Ghostbusters passed a few living people around the rearranged city skyline, all of whom seemed to be gathering survival supplies like jugs of water and flashlights. However, they also saw greater numbers of Cenobite creations. The sub-demons seemed to notice them as well. Many of them began stalking the silent ambulance, alarming the Ghostbusters. Inside Ecto-1, Doctor Peter Venkman sat uncharacteristically silent in the rear seat. Everyone inside the vehicle was rather silent. After what seemed like an eternity, Peter spoke:

"Guys, something's bothering me about Ray."

"You mean about his dream, right?" Asked Winston.

"Sort of. I think Ray's hiding something from us."

"What makes you think that?" Challenged Winston. "I've always known Ray to be honest, and he didn't seem possessed to me."

"The version he told you differed a little from the one he told me, and neither times did he mention what I heard from him in his sleep. He woke me up groaning about Angelique, but he also groaned Pinhead's name in his dream."

"Venkman, I think you're just worried," stated Egon. "I know him as well as do you and have a hard time believing that man would lie about anything. Plus, you and I both know he's a terrible liar. He proved it with the sorority girls back in college."

"Yeah, but that was personal; a 'little white lie'," responded Peter. "It was only about him. This concerns the fate of the city and the world."

"Well how did the story he told you differ from the one we heard?" Asked Winston.

"Well, in the version he told me, he said the meeting place was going to be his bookstore, not Janine's apartment. Also, he never said anything to me about Janine or I being under threat of torture."

Winston and Egon exchanged glances. Truth be told, they were worried about Peter being right. He was an expert at reading people. It was what made him good at sweet-talking clients, law officers, and the general public. And Ray seemed tremendously under duress. They had simply chalked it up to the apocalyptic situation at hand. But now that they considered it, Ray usually walked into situations like this as a child walked into a new playground. It was like he was mentally carrying something.

"You think it might have something to do with Ray almost getting possessed by Vigo down in Labyrinth?" Asked Winston solemnly.

"That's exactly what I was thinking. Like, he's planning to use Ray – a telepathic pathway he'd already created – to bust him out of Labyrinth and to re-enter our world," murmured Peter.

"Well I can always call him to find out. Now that we have left headquarters, if Vigo plans to strike now's a pretty good time." Egon dialed Ray's cell phone from his own. After a few dial tones, he received his colleague's familiar 'what's up?'"

"Ray, listen carefully to me. When you were down in Labyrinth and you got possessed by Vigo, did he tell you to do anything?"

"Well I remember something about 'walking into the machine, force the other one'… it's all pretty fuzzy though now. At the time it was overpowering yet distant," replied Ray via phone. Peter tore the phone out of Egon's hand and proceeded to talk.

"Ray, what was the thing that made you unable to bag that sorority chick Dianna Krall back in our university days?" Asked Peter.

"C'mon Pete, do you have to bring that up again? You and I both know it was because her father was a dean at our school and didn't like me. If he found out I slept with his beloved daughter he'd expel me for sure," sighed Ray. "I still think she's the one that got away."

Peter lowered the phone. "Well, guys, he's not possessed by anything. He just answered a question no ghost could possibly know the answer to." He handed the small device back to Egon.

"Have you guys found the box yet?" Asked Ray through the phone.

"No. We're still on our way to the source of the psychokinetic energy," replied Egon. "Talk to you later." The bespectacled scientist ended the call. Though it was clear Ray was under his own influence, no one in the car liked the results of Peter's little experiment. They still had to solve that mystery without offending their colleague.

Ecto-1 pulls up to the curb just a few blocks from Yankee Stadium. Egon checks his PKE Meter to confirm that the entity's signal is still strong. The boys in gray exit their vehicle and grab their equipment. Like at the nightclub, there is only eerie silence where large crowds of people should be. But, there are very few cars to be found anywhere along the street. A cool breeze shoots between the old apartment complexes, tussling the Ghostbusters' hair. All of them can hear moaning. Peter commented:

"I've heard moaning like that before; when we went to rescue Janine. Saddest sound you ever heard in your life. Let's go boys."

The Ghostbusters powered up their packs and cautiously followed Egon as he traced his PKE Meter's through the maze of buildings that appeared more like gray stone monoliths, until they gathered out in front of the occult shop. With its vivid neon green and purple storefront, the shop stood out from the dingy gray of the surrounding buildings. In the dark silence of the outdoors the parapsychologists could hear movement from within the shop. The three Ghostbusters exchanged glances before slinking to the doorway like secret agents.

…

John and Kirsty groggily wandered out from the firehouse television room, John rubbing his neck and Kirsty rubbing her eyes. Their footfalls drew Ray from Egon's lab to greet them:

"Good afternoon! I brewed a strong pot of coffee for you guys. You hungry? Want some toast or something?"

"Coffee would be great," said John, with Kirsty nodding in affirmation.

Ray went to the kitchen and returned a few minutes later with two full mugs. "Listen guys. I just remembered that I left something we need at my bookstore across town. But I don't feel comfortable leaving you guys here, because the Cenobites are likely still searching for you. So you should come with me." John and Kirsty nodded. "We don't have to leave quite yet. I'm still working on a few of those PCGs just in case we run into anything…" Ray trailed off lost in thought a few seconds before resuming. "Feel free to watch TV until I'm ready." He wandered back into Egon's lab and closed the door abruptly.

…

Winston cautiously pushed open the thin wooden door of the occult shop. The rummaging suddenly ceased. "Wiiiinston," a beautiful breathy feminine voice softly purred. The three Ghostbusters backed up cautiously, proton guns at the ready. "Do you really want to hurt me? I don't think he would appreciate it."

A small man stepped forward from the darkness of the shop into the soft amber glow of the streetlight. Decorated in a skintight black leather leggings and panel top, a full mask covered his head which was linked to his outfit by silver cone collar. Peter recognized him by his tan brown Bostonians, decidedly out of place with the rest of his outfit. "Louis, are you hurt? Are you still human?" The small accountant simply bared his teeth at them. Egon scanned him with PKE Meter. The small device nearly went into convulsions.

"Peter, he's possessed," stated Egon frankly.

"Yesssss," continued the feminine voice. "I wanted him for my new toy. Something just soooo sexy about a man with a brain." Egon swallowed hard at this. She too emerged into the streetlight's amber glow. Beautiful raven hair draped over her soft round shoulders. Down to her bust was only supple firm skin, the perfect shade of peach. A black leather corset interrupted the erotic journey downward, yet somehow enhanced it. Likewise, her lower regions were hidden within a tight black leather dress that extended halfway down her calves. The guys could only imagine the prize beneath that dress. They were trying hard to keep their resolve as their eyes continued downward. Black-laced leather spiraled down the leg, revealing small sections of fishnet and skin, down to full black leather boot, revealing only a small peek of red toenail at the very tip. The boot's thick heels elevated her greatly.

"Angelique, I presume," said Peter coyly. She giggled. "And you would be searching for the other puzzle box, right?" She giggled again.

"Do you boys really want to shoot lil' old me?"

"No," they all mumbled. Nevertheless they kept their guns trained on her. Winston started a makeshift interrogation.

"Tell us a little about your deal with our absent colleague."

"What deal?" Angelique replied. Her answer was not going to fool anybody.

"You know what deal we mean. You offered to end this apocalypse if Ray brought you both Lament Configurations. He told us you were going to meet him at Janine's apartment in about a half hour from now," continued Winston.

"Well, you're right about one thing: I left him with a lot to think about," purred Angelique.

"What does that mean?" asked Winston.

"I never agreed to meet him anywhere. I can summon him whenever I want him."

Just then, Egon's PKE Meter chirped to life and registered a similarly powerful empty ectopresence as Angelique. Stalking down the street behind them was a hideous cenobite dressed in similar fetish clothing as Pinhead. It was a being of two torsos, joined together in several places but most notably by a large cylinder to which skin of both their heads was tightly wrapped. One face was distorted in a hideous grin, the other in a hopeless frown.

"If you'll excuse me, gentlemen," commented Angelique. "I have to retrieve someone at your firehouse. You can play with the Wire Twins here. Come, Tully." She then began her sly walk down the street toward Lower Manhattan and the Ghostbusters' firehouse.

The Wire Twins shot chains toward the trio, only to watch the chains snap back, repelled by the same invisible force as were Pinhead's chains at the mental hospital. The Ghostbusters just shot each other disgusted glances as if to say "they never learn" and opened fire on the Wire Twins. The Cenobite simply absorbed the proton fire and advanced toward them. Surprised and worried, they could only retreat.

"If anyone has ideas, I'm all ears!" commented Peter.

"Sorry, Venkman. I'm terrified beyond capacity for rational thought," remarked Egon.

"Run!" shouted Winston. All three men broke into a wind sprint back toward Ecto-1. Doctor Egon Spengler was keeping a strict eye on his PKE Meter and the presence slowly stalking them. But he also happened to notice something that made him speak.

"Winston, Peter, look at this. In addition to the ectopresence following us, and the presence just a few minutes down the street, there is another more powerful concentration of the same presence heading toward Brooklyn."

"Brooklyn… that's where Ray's occult bookstore…" trailed Winston.

"Oh Shit," commented Peter. "Quick, call Ray's cell phone. I think I know what's going on here." Egon tried Ray's phone, only to get his voice message.

"He isn't picking up," commented Egon.

"Call the firehouse," suggested Peter. Egon tried that and got only the company message machine.

"We've got to get to Ray's Occult before he does," said Peter. The guys piled into their company car as fast as they could, and sped off down the street. Along the way they saw Angelique and Louis walking – hovering – along the avenue. As they passed Ecto-1 slowed, the windows descended, and two proton guns aimed out the window at the mysterious woman. "Going my way," deadpanned Peter. "Get in." He said with menace.

"Egon, do you want to tell me why I've got Little Miss Apocalyptica and her protégé at gunpoint here in the back seat?" Asked Peter.

"You said Peter that Ray moaned two names in his dream. Angelique, and Pinhead. When we got here, Angelique seemed to be searching for the second Lament Configuration, like us. You also suspected Ray of lying about something. My guess is that whatever he's lying about has something to do with that tremendous energy concentration in Brooklyn, and it will happen at his bookstore," reasoned Egon.

Angelique and Louis sat completely silent, but the expression on her face told Peter that she could read the expression on his face perfectly. If she wanted to escape she could and he knew it. But she seemed content to ride along with them. "This is a gorgeous vehicle," murmured the mysterious woman. "Be a shame to wreck it…" Ecto-1 cruised toward Brooklyn and Ray's Occult.


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 11 

Ray's fiery red Honda Civic sped toward his bookstore. John and Kirsty sat silently in the cramped rear seats with Janine in the passenger seat nearby. Two Proton Packs and a modified Proton Concussion Grenade were stashed in the small trunk. Ray seemed to be driving like a man late for work.

"Why you driving so fast?" asked Janine of Ray.

He replied, "well, um, I don't know how to say this… but I know where the second Lament Configuration is. I have it, at my bookstore." All three passengers stared at him incredulously.

"Why on earth did you have us spend hours searching for it when you knew right where it was?" Demanded Kirsty.

"And for that matter why did you send the other guys on a wild goose chase?" Added Janine.

"Unless you wanted them out of the picture…" mumbled John.

Ray cleared his throat but did not respond to the accusation. Worry registered on his face.

Within a few minutes the Civic pulled up outside Ray's demolished bookstore and all passengers exited the vehicle.

"Okay, now do you all have your slime pendants?" Asked Ray rather militantly.

The others nodded. "Good. Janine, you get the spare Proton Pack. John, you take the modified PCG." The pudgy Ghostbuster haphazardly jammed the PCG toward John and he was forced to cradle it. "Let's go guys."

"Waitaminute. Why all this stuff?" Asked Kirsty. Ray ignored the question and looked at his watch. Three O'clock on the button. The parapsychologist led the three confused people into the bookstore. A few seconds later, the voice Kirsty heard almost threw her into convulsions.

"You chose correctly Raymond," purred a breathy male voice. Three Cenobites stepped into the halogen light of the bookstore: Chompers, Butterball, and the dark lord himself, Pinhead. The confusion on the faces of Janine, John, and Kirsty turned into pure terror.

"What the hell did he dangle in front of you to get you to do this?" Demanded John, in a frank tone of voice.

"He promised to end all this chaos and to give our world the secrets of his," replied Ray solemnly.

"You mean to give you the secrets," sneered John.

Kirsty tried to flee, but Chompers and Butterball caught her and threw her against the building's back wall. In the commotion her slime pendant broke from around her neck and shattered on the ground. "Now that that pesky little thing is out of the way," said Pinhead. "The Lament Configuration, if you please."

The Lament Configuration flew out of a hidden shelf in the desk of the cash register and straight into Pinhead's hands. He finished working the small device and watched with delight as it slowly turned into place. He lifted the other one and joined them. They morphed into a puzzle box twice as big as the individual boxes with patterns three times as intricate. While Pinhead was focused on the box, Ray silently motioned for Kirsty to get behind Janine. "Now, about your end of the bargain," demanded Ray. Pinhead nodded and began to levitate two tomes. They slowly floated over to Ray's hands and he tore them wide open, only to find blank page after blank page. The parapsychologist stared at the tomes with shock and then looked at Pinhead in desperation.

"But you promised-" stuttered Ray. The nail-headed Cenobite just laughed mockingly.

"Oh, but you will get what you want. You see Doctor Stantz, those who desire the secrets of Labyrinth get us as well." At that phrase the slime pendant broke from around Ray's neck and shattered on the ground, just as Kirsty's had done. Pinhead stared at his fellow Cenobites, who sent an assault of flesh-ripping hooks toward the surprised party. "And now we will get what we desire," he said menacingly. The nail-headed Cenobite looked around just in time to receive a sharp shoulder block from the pudgy Ghostbuster. As the lead Cenobite crumpled backward, the Lament Configuration fell from Pinhead's grasp and tumbled to Kirsty. Ray backed away from the Cenobites.

"Now, Kirsty! Get it!" Shouted Ray. The young woman grabbed the puzzle box. Pinhead snarled with disgust. Chains wrapped around the arms of both John and Kirsty, binding them to the walls. John's slime pendant shattered as well. Ray and Janine opened fire on all three Cenobites, but the beams simply evaporated into them.

"Fools! Do you really think you ever had a bargaining chip against me? Your toy guns cannot harm me. Now you will all know the torments of Hell." Pinhead aimed the flesh-shredding hooks.

"Pinhead, dear…" began a familiar female voice. Angelique slinked into the bookstore. Following her were Louis as well as the other three Ghostbusters, who spied Ray and all shot him vicious glances. Pinhead and Angelique began a rather heated argument. John and Kirsty's chains momentarily relaxed and the pair of victims wiggled free of their prison. The young woman began working on the puzzle box still in her grip, trying to close it. As the pieces shifted, John shouted, "Now, Ghostbusters, fire on the box!" They opened fire and crossed proton beams into the bright purple light of the closing box. After smoking a few seconds, the giant box separated into two smaller boxes. But nothing else changed. The Ghostbusters turned in horror to witness Pinhead tearing the skin right off Angelique, revealing her true form. When Janine spied her exposed brain and voice box, she said, "That was the one that abducted me."

After stripping Angelique of her beautiful appearance, Pinhead turned his attention back to the Ghostbusters. "You see the price of betrayal and selfishness. Now you too will know that price."

Several hooks shot at Peter, who tried to shield his face with his left arm. The hooks sank into his flesh, causing the Ghostbuster to cry out and then scream horribly as his left forearm was torn away from the rest of his body. A long crimson stream poured unceasing from his arm as he cradled the amputee wound to his chest.

"Pete, hold out your arm and brace yourself," shouted Winston. "This is gonna' hurt like a bitch." Winston then fired on Peter's arm, cauterizing the massive wound and ceasing the bleeding. Peter stayed silent through the whole process but nearly bit through his own tongue.

His eyes narrowed into slits as he rose methodically and gasped:

"Okay, boys. Fire at the boxes." Ray, Egon, Winston, and Janine opened fire on the puzzle boxes, causing all Cenobites in the room to fall back. While the Cenobites rose, Pinhead remained on the ground, roaring in pain.

"Patience, dear," purred the female Cenobite. "This will all be over soon." An icy purple light shone through the south wall of the bookstore. Leviathan was taking its place as ruler above the Manhattan skyline. To Pinhead's pain and surprise, flesh ripping hooks shot into Angelique's three hellish comrades. The female cenobite then summoned Louis, whom wandered over to her side like a loving puppy. She plunged her arm deep into his chest, tore out his beating heart and devoured it. The accountant's body dropped lifeless to the floor. "You see, we always take our toll," she purred while wiping blood from the corners of her pale lips.

Janine screamed in anguish and Egon turned her away from the awful sight. Angelique then slinked over to Pinhead, suspended by the otherworldly chains, and sank her fingers into his pale cranium; crimson nails sinking in between the jeweled pins. She repeatedly chanted, "Ia Ia Ithaxul." Pinhead's body began a hellish metamorphosis. Rusty medieval armor began to overtake the lead Cenobite's fetish clothing. Long tufts of cream-colored hair grew out of his spiky head. Pinhead's pretty face began distorting into a demonic shape as rat-like ears grew out of his forehead. The other Cenobites exploded in a bloody visceral mess as the chains tore right through them. Only Angelique was left. "You've done well, my love," the new creature said to the female Cenobite. Then the beast turned to face the Ghostbusters. "I am Vigo the Cenobite, and you will feel my wrath, Ghostbusters. I am reborn at last and you will suffer an eternity of pain to please me."

"Get the Lament Configurations and close them," whispered John to Kirsty. The determined young woman almost made herself part of the floor to remain unnoticed as she crawled over and gathered the puzzle boxes. The toy maker's descendant retrieved the PCG and yanked off the corded detonator. "Now help me. We can't get the others over here without being noticed. I need your physical strength to push against mine. We need to push the two puzzle boxes together while I detonate the grenade and hold it over the closing boxes." Words were unnecessary; John and Kirsty both knew this would be fatal and sealed their pact with only a head nod. The young woman began working her fingers over the surface of one cube until it began reforming and then worked the other cube. Winston looked over at John and Kirsty, who stared forlornly as John mouthed "goodbye." As she solved the final Lament Configuration puzzle, John detonated the Proton Concussion Grenade.

"Get down!" yelled Winston. The four other Ghostbusters dropped and covered as the explosion shot right over their heads. Between the inward negative energy of the Lament Configuration and the outward positive energy of the PCG, John and Kirsty were evaporated. Within a few seconds the explosion was gone, leaving only smoldering pieces of wood and twisted brass shell.

"No!" It wasn't supposed to be like this! No one was supposed to die…" stammered Ray, staring at the smoldering ruins.

"Uh, guys," started Peter. "Look."

Even though the female demon and Lament Configurations were gone, Vigo the Cenobite still remained in the room with them. "Now Raymond," it snarled. "For your reward." Vigo summoned the otherworldly hooks, only to discover that none came at his beck and call.

"Well, well, well, looks like someone lost his support," smarted Peter menacingly.

"You ain't got Labyrinth backing you anymore," added Winston.

The Ghostbusters rose and aimed their Proton Guns at Vigo the Cenobite, whom again tried summoning the hooks without success. Bright sunlight poured through the bookstore's decimated south wall, casting a warming shadow on the bookstore. Egon's PKE Meter chirped to life at the new presence: instead of the tremendous Cenobite emptiness there registered a class eight demigod. He dropped the small device and sneered, "Fire."

With fury like never before, the five Ghostbusters opened fire on Vigo the Cenobite. The creature roared in pain as concentrated protons assaulted every inch of its hideous body. Vigo the Cenobite expanded like a balloon until its body exploded, sending bits of flaming viscera and fountains of blood in every direction. The blended mess of monster imploded in a flash of purple light. All that was left was a black ring of soot and the acrid smell of burning flesh. All five Ghostbusters were drenched in Cenobite blood and monstrous viscera. The horrible stench caused Winston to vomit all over the floor. Peter hung his gun and cradled his cauterized arm. Egon and Ray surveyed the area.

All the books in the store had been ruined in one way or another. Some were burnt beyond recognition, some were hopelessly stained with blood, many were trampled and ruined, and the rest had just been shredded. A thick uncomfortable silence hung in the air. Janine kneeled near the corpse of her former boyfriend Louis and cradled it to her chest for a few moments. Egon approached her, slowly helped her to her feet, and escorted the heartbroken woman toward the outdoors. Ray looked forlornly at his decimated bookstore before walking quietly back to his red Civic. The rest of the Ghostbusters followed toward Ecto-1.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 12 

A few days later, things in New York had started regaining some normalcy. There was no trace of the demonic Cenobite creations anywhere in town. Relief crews were cleaning up the damage all over the city. Some local television stations had begun broadcasting again. Peter and Winston were watching the news coverage of the relief efforts. They said nothing to each other. Egon was tinkering in his lab. Janine was solemnly filing her nails at her desk, picture of her late boyfriend turned face down. In the few days' time, Ray pretty much been absent from the firehouse and hadn't spoken at all to his colleagues. So it was surprising when he called all of them into Egon's lab for an impromptu meeting. With a heavy heart he began.

"Guys. I'm sorry. I should have known that Pinhead would have lied to me to get what he wanted, and that he'd take advantage of my desire for the secrets of Labyrinth. I'm sorry for lying to you about my dream. I was sure you'd try to talk me out of the deal and so I didn't want to tell you…"

Peter connected a right hook to Ray's jaw. "Damn right you should be." Egon and Winston tried to help Ray up from the floor but he motioned them off forlornly. He continued.

"When we first started Ghostbusters, I thought it would be a fantastic ride. In addition to publicity and parapsychological advancements I pictured an extermination service: work that was fun. I never expected to suffer the finality of death."

"Ray, you and I both know we've almost been killed dozens of times, man," said Winston.

"Yeah, but it didn't seem real because it was us facing the threat. We would be the first killed. Three deaths on your conscience are too much."

"Raymond, where are you going with this?" Asked Egon. Ray sighed.

"My sister Sam still has her dairy farm in central Ohio. When I was younger I always liked going to the country to clear my head whenever something was bothering me…I found peace there."

"Don't tell me," started Janine. Ray cut her off.

"I'm resigning from Ghostbusters effective immediately. I can't do this job anymore."

"No, Ray. You are a part of this team; you are a founding member," said Janine, tears welling in her eyes. "You're the heart."

Ray felt his own eyes misting too. "Why are you arguing against it? I caused the death of our allies and your boyfriend! Because of my own greed!" The room was dead silent. The pudgy parapsychologist inhaled his emotions and continued after a few frustrating moments. "I just… need to think about things; to leave this behind. You guys can come visit me when calls are slow. You know the address."

"Is that final?" Peter asked solemnly. Ray nodded. Peter choked, "write me often." The lead Ghostbuster embraced his friend, and the others joined. Ray exited the lab and walked to the sleeping quarters. It only took ten minutes for him to pack his stuff. With the others shadowing him, Ray Stantz threw his suitcase in the trunk of his Civic and entered the driver's seat. Waving goodbye, he sped off down the road. Janine began sobbing and Egon embraced her. Peter and Winston silently watched their comrade's car until it disappeared out of view.

…

Things were relatively slow around the firehouse for about the next week. The Ghostbusters held a small funeral for their late accountant Louis Tully and notified his extended family of his death. Egon again had retreated to his lab, only now Janine was admitted once in a while. Peter had finished a press statement and negotiated payment with the New York City government, which even included a prosthetic forearm for the suave Ghostbuster. He opted to mimic horror movie hero Ash by getting an alternate Proton Gun attachment. Winston spent a lot of time at his favorite baseball park, in the batting cages. They got a postcard in the mail from Ray that mentioned he was doing okay and enjoyed the farm work. That Thursday morning, Janine answered a call from her desk.

"Hello, Ghostbusters… You do? At the Manhattan Park Complex? 121 Central Park West. Okay! Thank you."

She rang the fire bell, summoning all three Ghostbusters. They slid down the fire pole from the second floor, one right after the other.

"You coming along on this one?" Asked Peter.

"You bet I am," replied Janine, as she rose from her desk and went over to her new locker. They all suited up and piled into Ecto-1. The ambulance roared to life and burst through the building's iron doors, sirens echoing into the warm autumn day.

…

Outside a small head shop in Fremont, California, a tie-dye clad stoner stared at a small wooden cube on a velvet-covered table. Each of the cube's eight faces was decorated with an intricate pattern of bonze lines. Each one pointed toward the small circle in the center of each face. "What's with this box, dude?"

The turban-clad traveling merchant replied with a sinister grin, "What's your pleasure?"

**THE END?**


End file.
